Understanding Sentence Subjects: Structure and Identification

Castilian Grammar: Sentence Subjects

As we have seen, the subject of a sentence is a noun phrase whose nucleus usually agrees with the verb in number and person. Like any other noun phrase, the subject is formed by a nucleus (N) of a substantive nature which may be accompanied by a determinant (Det.) and one or more complements (Compl.).

• A sentence is composed of a noun phrase functioning as the subject and a verb phrase functioning as the predicate.
• The subject is the group of words that names the person, animal, or thing about which something is stated in the sentence.

Recognition of the Subject

To identify the subject of a sentence, you can apply the following tests:

• Change the verb number and observe which words change their number to agree.
• Ask who or what precedes the verb of the sentence.

Often the subject is at the beginning of the sentence, but it can also occupy other positions. Examples:

Amundsen reached the South Pole.

Amundsen reached the South Pole.

Amundsen reached the South Pole.

Subject Vocabulary and Grammatical Subject

In many sentences, there is no explicit phrase functioning as the subject. In these cases, the sentence lacks a lexical subject but possesses a grammatical subject.

• Call it the lexical subject when it is the word or set of words in a sentence that serves as the subject. Example:

The five climbers died.

• Call it the grammatical subject based on the inflections of number and person that the verb takes in a sentence. It is these endings that allow us to know to whom the verb refers. Example:

They set up shop there. (3rd person plural)

In this case, the grammatical subject is formed by the endings of number (plural) and person (third) in the verbal form set up.

All statements with a verb in a specific person have a grammatical subject, but they may lack a lexical subject. Often, for example, the subject of a sentence is omitted when it is understood without difficulty. Example:

The crew of the Fram installed the base camp. It remained until October 19.

In the second sentence, there is no lexical subject, as the phrase that could function as such (the crew of the Fram) was already mentioned in the first. In these cases, we speak of ellipsis of the subject, and the subject is called the elliptical subject (omitted).