SUBJECT AND PREDICATOR
THE SUBJECT (S)
Semantic, cognitive and syntactic features
A Semantic and cognitive features
The Subject is that functional category of the clause of which something is predicated. It represents the primary participant in the clause and has the highest claim to the cognitive status of Topic that is who or what the clausal message is primarily about.
With voluntary verbs of action, the subject fulfils the role of Agent, the one that initiates or carries out an action. If there is an Agent in the event expressed by such a verb, that element will be the subject.
However, the subject can be associated with almost every other semantic role, such as:
Jones kicked the ball into the net. (Agent)
The ball was kicked into the net. (Affected in a passive clause)
Lightning struck the oak tree. (Force)
His secretary has been given too much work. (Recipient in a passive clause.)
B Syntactic features
The Subject must be present in declarative and interrogative clauses but is not required in the imperative:
Fasten your seat belts! (Normally no subject in imperative clauses.)
(a) It is that element which is picked up in a question-tag and referred to anaphorically by a pronoun:
Your brother is a journalist, isn’t he?
(b) It is in the subjective case if a pronoun is used – I, he, she, we and they in contrast to the objective forms for Objects: me, him, her, us and them. You and it are invariant:
We all left early.
(c) Possessive pronouns and genitive nouns can function as subject:
Yours was rather difficult to read.
Jennifer’s got lost in the post/ mail (BrE vs AmE).
(d) It is placed before the finite verb in declarative clauses, and in wh-interrogative clauses where the wh- element is subject:
Susie is staying with us.
Who was the last to leave? (Who is subject)
(e) It is placed after the finite operator (the first element of the VG) in yes/no interrogative clauses, and in wh-interrogative clauses where the wh- element is not subject:
Are you pleased with the result?
What film did you see last night? (What film is Object)
When is Silvia coming back? (When is Adjunct)
(f) It determines the concord of number (singular or plural) and person (he/she/it). Concord is manifested only in those verb forms that show inflectional contrast:
The librarian /he/she has checked the book.
The librarians/ you / we / they have checked the book.
Where is my credit card? Where are my credit cards?
(g) It determines the present and past tense of the verb be:
Our next concert is on Thursday, and the last one was in April.
(h) It determines number, person and gender concord with the Complement of the Subject and with reflexive pronouns at Cs, Oi and Od:
Jean and Bill are my friends. (Cs)
She cut herself (Od) on a piece of broken glass.
Why don’t you give yourself (Oi) a treat?
(i) In discourse, when two or more conjoined clauses have the same subject, all but the first are regularly ellipted:
He came in, sat down and opened his lap-top.
(j) When the subject is realized by a collective noun, concord depends on how the referent is visualized by the speaker:
The committee is sitting late. (sing. seen as a whole. AmE prefers this option)
The committee have decided to award extra grants. (plur. seen as a number of members. BrE uses either.)
