Sentence Structure II The Subject

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Sentence Structure IIThe Subject

• Carmela Grillone
• FAO Consultant

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Whats the Subject

• The subject of a sentence is the person, place,
  thing, or idea that is doing or being something.
• You can find the subject of a sentence if you can
  find the verb. The answer to the question
• Who or what does' or did? is the subject.
• In the sentence The chairs in the Conference
  Room must be replaced," the verb is "must be
  replaced." What must be replaced? The chairs. So
  the subject is "chairs.
• A simple subject is the subject of a sentence
  stripped of modifiers.

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An Example

• The simple subject of the following sentence is
  issue
• The really important issue of the conference,
  stripped of all other considerations, is the
  morality of the nation.

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The Subject an Entire Clause

• Sometimes a simple subject can be more than one
  word, even an entire clause. In the following
  sentence.
• What he had already forgotten about computer
  repair could fill whole volumes,
• ..the simple subject is not "computer repair,"
  nor "what he had forgotten," nor "he."
• What could fill whole volumes?
• The entire underlined clause is the simple subject

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The Imperative

• In English, the subject of a command, order, or
  suggestion you, the person being directed is
  usually left out of the sentence and is said to
  be the understood subject
• You Run or I'll leave you behind!
• Before using the microwave, you read these
  instructions carefully.

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The doer of the action

• For purposes of sentence analysis, the doer or
  the initiator of action in a sentence is referred
  to as the agent of the sentence. In an active
  sentence, the subject is the agent
• The Johnsons added a double garage to their
  house.
• The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter

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Passive Sentences

• In a passive sentence, the agent is not the
  subject. In fact, sometimes a passive sentence
  will not contain an agent.
• The dean's report was reviewed by the faculty
  senate.
• Three cities in the country's interior were
  bombed.

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Complete versus Simple Subject

• The complete subject is the who or what that is
  doing the verb plus all of the modifiers
  (descriptive words) that go with it. Read the
  sentence below
• The huge, hairy, hungry, green Martian grabbed a
  student from the back row. Who did the grabbing?
  The Martian, of course. But this Martian wasn't
  small, bald, satisfied and blue. No, this one was
  huge, hairy, hungry, and green. The complete
  subject, then, is the huge, hairy, hungry, green
  Martian.

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Complete versus Simple Subject (2)

• The simple subject, on the other hand, is the who
  or what that is doing the verb without any of the
  provided description. Take a look at this
  example
• The bright coin sparkled on the sidewalk.
• What did the sparkling? Obviously, the bright
  coin. The and bright, are just description that
  distinguishes this coin. The simple subject is
  only the word coin.

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Prepositional Phrase

• Remember that the subject is never part of a
  prepositional phrase
• The subject of a verb will never be part of a
  prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase
  begins with a preposition (in, on, at, between,
  among, etc.) and ends with a noun. Look at these
  examples of prepositional phrases
• in the dirty bathtub
• on the bumpy road
• at home
• between good friends
• among the empty pizza boxes

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Prepositional Phrase (2)

• My dog, along with her seven puppies, has chewed
  all of the stuffing out of my sofa cushions.
• Here, both my dog and her seven puppies are
  chewing on the sofa, but because the puppies are
  part of the prepositional phrase along with her
  seven puppies, the only word that counts as the
  subject is dog.

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Final Remarks

• Generally, but not always, the subject comes
  before the verb. There are, however, exceptions,
  like this one
• In a small house adjacent to my backyard lives a
  family with ten noisy children.
• Lives is the action verb in this sentence, but it
  is not the house or the backyard that is doing
  the living. Instead, it is the family with ten
  noisy children. Family, then, is the subject of
  this sentence, even though it comes after the
  verb.