The Subject

The Subject Test for identifying subjects in English Agreement: In a finite sentence, the main verb agrees with the subject. Pat writes/*write letters to his friends. Tag question: The pronoun that occurs in a tag question refers to the subject. John wrote a letter to his sister, didn't he/ *she/ *they? Subject-auxiliary inverions: In forming a yes/no question, an auxiliary is placed directly before the subject. Will Pat write a letter? Categories and structural position Only an NP or an S' can be the subject of a clause. The subject of a clause S is the NP or S' that is immediately dominated by that S node and that precedes the VP (or AuxP) of the clause. Example:

         _S__
        /    \
     subj     \
      /        \  
    NP   ______AuxP________
   /__\ /__________________\
   Pat  will write a letter.