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Structural Types of the Subject




Ways of expressing the Subject

THE SUBJECT

Exclamatory sentences

Imperative sentences

Imperative sentences express commands. Besides commands proper imperative sentences may express prohibition, a request, an invitation, a warning, persuasion, etc.

Formally commands are marked by the predicate verb in the imperative mood, absence of the subject, and the use of the auxiliary do in negative or emphatic sentences with the verb to be:

Don’t be afraid of them.

Speak louder, please.

Would you do me a favour?

Let Philip have a look at it.

Let’s go outside.

Don’t let’s quarrel about trifles.

Let’s not quarrel about trifles.

Somebody switch off light.

Silence, please (a verbless command).

Exclamatory sentences express ideas emphatically:

What a funny story she told us!

How beautiful her voice is!

How I hate posters!

What a situation!

Isn’t it funny!

Doesn’t she sing beautifully!

If only I were young again!

Fire!( one-member sentence)

To think that she should have said so!

 

 

 

Every English sentence except the one-member and the imperative must have a subject. The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence. The subject is that which is spoken of. In declarative sentences it comes before the predicate, but in questions its position is after an auxiliary verb. The subject determines the form of the predicate, which agrees with it in number and person.

 

 

The subject can be expressed by these parts of speech and groups of words which are connected with the idea of subjectivity:

1. A noun in the common case or a nominal phrase with a noun:

Love filled his soul.

A great number of trees were cut down.

2. A personal pronoun in the nominative case or a nominal phrase with a pronoun:

She is a very talkative person.

It never rains, but it pours.

Who told you this?

Her dress was the best at the party.

3. A numeral or a nominal phrase with a numeral:

Seven is a lucky number.

Two thousands more were believed to be injured.

4. An infinitive or a gerund:

Seeing is believing.

To understand is to forgive.

5. An infinitive phrase or a gerundial phrase:

To go on like this was dangerous.

Doing several things at a time doesn't bring good results.

6. An Infinitive predicative construction or a gerundial construction:

For me to go there is impossible.

Your doing this is very strange.

7. A clause, which makes the whole sentence a complex one:

What is done cannot be undone.

What he expected began.

8. Any word or words used as quotations:

Your "i" must be dotted.

"The War of the Worlds" was first published in 1898.

 

Structurally the subject falls into four types: simple, phrasal, complex and clausal.

1. The simple subject is expressed by a single word-form:

Spring has come at last.

Smoking is bad for your health.

To live is to struggle.

2. The phrasal subject is expressed by any of the phrases mentioned above (nominal phrases, infinitive phrases, gerundial phrases):

Building houses becomes more difficult.

To ask him again was impossible.

The blue of the sky deepened visibly.

3. The complex subject is expressed by different predicative complexes:

a) For-to-infinitive constructions:

For him to earn bread was a problem.

b) Gerundial constructions:

My meeting him again was a surprise.

4. The clausal subject is expressed by a subject clause:

Who has done this is still to be found.

Where he lives is unknown to me.

Note: A noun in the genitive case can be the subject. This may occur when a noun denotes someone's place of business or residence:

The grocer’s was full.

The hairdresser’s is at a stone’s throw away.

It may also be the result of an ellipsis:

Jim’s was a narrow escape (Jim’s escape was a narrow one). This type of the subject is rather emphatic.

As the subject is the grammatical centre of the sentence which determines the form of the predicate it would be possible to assume that the sentence is unimaginable without the subject. However, practice proves that sentences without the subject exist. These are mainly imperative sentences, one-member sentences, two-member elliptical sentences:

Sit down!

Silence. Winter.

Looks like rain.

“Where is John?” ― “Went to Paris.”

According to the classification suggested by Professor Smirnitsky there exist the following types of the subject.

a) definite personal

b) indefinite personal

c) impersonal

Definite personal subject denotes a concrete person or a non-person and can be expressed by nouns, pronouns, numerals, infinitives, gerunds, predicative complexes, clauses:

To marry Fleur would be to hit his mother in the face.

She had never been afraid to experiment.

What you say is a good piece of advice.

Indefinite Personal subject may denote:

1. a person in broad sense; in this case the subject is expressed by a definite pronoun one or a personal pronoun you:

When one has a fever, one’s ideas become grotesque and fanciful.

2. more or less definite group of persons; in this case the subject is expressed by personal pronouns we and they:

They say this is a difficult place to work.

Impersonal subject is used in sentences describing various states of nature or things in general, or characteristics of the environment. It also denotes time, distance and other measurements:

It is spring.

It is cold today.

It seems that he is not frank with us.

 

 




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