Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage
Modern English Grammar English 2126		Contact Form

The Subject

Note: Labels of the clause-level functions have changed. These pages use both

• the terminology of Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J. (1985) Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, Longman. (CGEL)

and

• the teminology of the most recent version of that grammar — Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (2021) Grammar of Spoken and Written English, John Benjamins. (GSWE)

since many textbooks and school grammars currently use either one set of terminology or the other.

In these pages, I will place the GSWE labels in square brackets after the CGEL labels, as in subject complement [subject predicative] and SC [SP].

Mapping clause function labels between CGEL and GSWE
CGEL (1985)	GSWE (2021)
Subject[S]	Subject[S]
Verb[V]	Verb[V]
Direct object[DO]	Object	Direct object[DO]
Indirect object[IO]		Indirect object[IO]
Subject complement[SC]	Predicative	Subject predicative[SP]
Object complement[OC]		Object predicative[OP]
Adverbial[A]	Adverbial	Optional adverbial[OpA]
Adverbial complement[AC]		Obligatory adverbial[ObA]

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The subject, like the verb, is a central constituent in the clause. And as a central element, it 'governs' many of the grammatical choices to be made within the clause. The subject determines agreement between itself and the verb and governs the person, number, case, and gender, where relevant, of several other constituents within the clause. Traditional grammar books and school grammars often define the subject along semantic lines: they refer to the subject as "what the sentence is about" or as "the topic of the sentence" or as the "actor performing the action described by the verb. From the perspective of grammar, however, such definitions are misleading, since those older definitions blend and conflate different ideas that are best understood if kept apart. As we will see soon in the section on METAFUNCTION, the subject is a distinct entity, related to, but separate from, notions like 'theme' or 'topic' or 'actor.'

Grammatical subjects usually share a number of properties that serve to identify them within a clause. These are form, position, agreement, pronouns, and voice.

Form. The subject is usually a noun phrase or clause.

That guy (S) is the one.

What I don't know (S) can hurt me.

Position. The subject is usually positioned before the verb in the indicative mood, after the auxiliary in the interrogative mood, and absent — but implied — in the imperative mood.

Sandy (S) fell asleep. [indicative mood]

Did I (S) win? [interrogative mood]

Go home! [imperative mood]

Agreement. Subjects usually determine the number (singular or plural) and person (first, second, third) of other constituents in the clause. The subject determines the number and person, where relevant, of the verb in finite clauses.

Liz (S) works (V) hard. [singular, third person]

Emily and Liz (S) work (V) hard. [Plural]

The subject determines the number and person, where relevant, of any noun phrase functioning as the subject complement / subject predicative.

Frank (S) is my nephew (SC [SP])

Frank, Mike, and Paul (S) are my nephews (SC [SP])

The subject also determines the number, person, and gender, where relevant, of 'reflexive' pronouns — pronouns ending with the -self or -selves inflections.

I (S) cut myself.

They (S) cut themselves.

The subject determines the number, person, and gender, where relevant, of the emphatic pronoun own in structures such as my own or their own.

I (S) cut myself with my own knife.

They (S) cut themselves with their own knives.

Pronouns. The subject determines the case, where relevant, of any pronoun in subject function; that is, the subject function requires the subjective form of the pronoun.

I (S) like her.

She (S) likes me.

Voice. There is a systematic relationship between the subject of a clause and voice (active or passive). The active voice subject corresponds to an adverbial (beginning with the preposition by) in the passive voice.

Emily (S) likes Liz. [active voice]

Liz is liked by Emily (A [OpA]) [passive voice].

REFERENCES

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., and Finegan, E. (2021). Grammar of Spoken and Written English. John Benjamins.

Curme, G. (1931). A Grammar of the English Language, 2 volumes. D. C. Heath and Company.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. Edward Arnold.

Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman.

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