Subjects

Subject: Noun or Pronoun, which does the action/ Who perform the action. To understand the function of Subjects, here is given a Syntatical Tree for it. 

Forms(Extra) 

→ Common Form - Qualifier + Headword

→Gerund 

→Infinitives 

→Clause 

→Direct Quotation- I love you is common to all

→ Zero (In imperatives)

→ Expletive (Use of It) e.g. It is very hot today.

Rules(Extra) 

→ Subject - Verb Concord - For finites 

→ Positional Occupied - Sb then Vb (always in Active) Vb then obj (always in Active).

→ Semantics - meaning doesn't differ according to voices.

→ Morphological - Nominative Cases only.

→ Omission - Imperatives e.g Sit down

Challenges to Subjects(Extra) 

1) Inversion 

2) Inverse copular Functions

Subject- less Clauses(Extra)

We know that, 

Sentence= Sb + Predicate

But 

Sentence ≠ Predicate (in English only) 

Applied to language like Germany.

Concept of Preparatory Subject(Extra) 

→ Also known as Anticipatory Subject.

→ Represents a verb clause later in a sentence.

→ Common Preparatory Subject is "It". 

Uses

Commonly used in speech or writing when the subject is longer than the complement and is better placed at the end of the Sentence. 

E.g It is good to play a Guitar.

HOTS(Extra) 

1) Quirky Subjects- Non- Nominative Sbj.

2) Subjective Pronouns- I, you , ye, who, what etc (Nominative case).

3) ECM - Exceptional Case marking, is the Subject pronoun used for the logical Sbj.

(Like Possesive case). 

4) Hyper correction: Identifying the misuse of Subjects in a Sentence.

"Me" as Sbj {×} 

"I" as Obj {×} 

Structures for basic syntax Trees of Sbj 

(Subjective Laws) 

1) Qualifier + Headword

2) Det + Headword 

3) Det + Adj + Headword 

4) Det + Adj phrase + Headword 

5) Adj Phrase + Headword

6) Headword