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The Subject | The Subject | ||
Test for identifying subjects in English | Test for identifying subjects in English | ||
Agreement: In a finite sentence, the main verb agrees with the subject. | Agreement: In a finite sentence, the main verb agrees with the subject.<br> | ||
Pat writes/*write letters to his friends. | <code>Pat writes/*write letters to his friends.</code> | ||
Tag question: The pronoun that occurs in a tag question refers to the subject. | 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? | John wrote a letter to his sister, didn't he/ *she/ *they? |
Revision as of 13:14, 16 May 2019
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.
Read further on other grammatical functions: