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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:

  1. The predicate
  2. The subject
  3. The complements
    1. The direct object
    2. The indirect object
    3. The predicative complement
    4. The oblique complement
  4. Modifiers (Adjuncts)



 Predicate       Grammatical Functions         Direct Object