3. THE SUBJECT

I. DEFINITION

The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence which together with the predicate constitutes the binary predicative bond. Predicative bond between the S /the thing subjected to description/ on the one hand and the P which predicates / “says” / sth about the S on the other hand is the structural backbone of the sentence. To define S we need to take into account the following points:


1. MEANING: it is the “thing” /including objects of reality, abstract notions, imaginary item etc./ whose features and characteristics, actions and states are expressed by the predicate; in most cases S is “what the thought and the sentence is about”.

2. SYNTACTIC RELATIONS: as a main constituent the S doesn’t depend on other parts of the sentence but is in a special kind of agreement with the P called S – V concord. The English S is fixed in the word order of the clause – always in initial position before the verb and is not omissible.

3. MORPHOLOGICAL REALIZATION: The S is substantival constituent – any linguistic item which has been substantivized can function as S,

e.g.: A is a letter. And is a conjunction.

N.B.  In rare cases the S which appears in the subject position before the verb may not be “the sentence is about”. This is the case with expressions like: it is warm, it is raining, there is a cat in the bag - such cases will be dealt with in III. morphological realization.