According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the other being its predicate. In English, subjects govern agreement on the verb or auxiliary verb that carries the main tense of the sentence, as exemplified by the difference in verb forms between he eats and they eat. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Theoretical linguistics is that branch of linguistics that is most concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Lexical semantics is a field in computer science and linguistics which deals mainly with word meaning. ... Statistical Semantics is the study of how the statistical patterns of human word usage can be used to figure out what people mean, at least to a level sufficient for information access (Furnas, 2006). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Prototype Theory is a model of graded categorization in Cognitive Science, where some members of a category are more central than others. ... In linguistics and semiotics, pragmatics is concerned with bridging the explanatory gap between sentence meaning and speakers meaning. ... Applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics concerned with using linguistic theory to address real-world problems. ... For the academic journal, see Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability develops in a human. ... Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. ... This article or section cites its sources but does not provide page references. ... Linguistic anthropology is that branch of anthropology that brings linguistic methods to bear on anthropological problems, linking the analysis of semiotic and particularly linguistic forms and processes (on both small and large scales) to the interpretation of sociocultural processes (again on small and large scales). ... Generative linguistics is a school of thought within linguistics that makes use of the concept of a generative grammar. ... In linguistics and cognitive science, cognitive linguistics (CL) refers to the currently dominant school of linguistics that views the important essence of language as innately based in evolutionarily-developed and speciated faculties, and seeks explanations that advance or fit well into the current understandings of the human mind. ... Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and logical modeling of natural language from a computational perspective. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ... Comparative linguistics (originally comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness. ... Not to be confused with Entomology, the study of insects. ... Stylistics is the study of style used in literary, and verbal language and the effect the writer/speaker wishes to communicate to the reader/hearer. ... In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for the use of a language, or the making of recommendations for effective language usage. ... Efforts to describe and explain the human language faculty have been undertaken throughout recorded history. ... A linguist in the academic sense is a person who studies linguistics. ... Unsolved problems in : Note: Use the unsolved tag: {{unsolved|F|X}}, where F is any field in the sciences: and X is a concise explanation with or without links. ... Constituent as used in syntactic analysis refers to a word or a group of words that function together as a unit and are embedded into a hierarchical structure. ... In linguistics and logic, a predicate is an expression that can be true of something. ... In languages, agreement is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ...

The subject has the grammatical function in a sentence of relating its constituent (a noun phrase) by means of the verb to any other elements present in the sentence, i.e. objects, complements and adverbials. If grammar is seen as studying the relations and architectures of language, such relations and structures would then have supports and anchors, forces and motions, features and property equivalencies, and roles galore just as a building or organixm has. ... In linguistics, a noun phrase is a phrase whose Head is a noun. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. ... A complement is a phrase that fits a particular slot in the syntax requirements of a parent phrase. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The subject is a phrasal constituent, and should be distinguished from parts of speech, which, roughly, classify words within constituent. In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ... Words has several meanings: words in Unix. ...

Forms of subject

The subject is a noun phrase in the sentence and can be realised by the following forms

• A determinerless noun phrase, also called a bare noun phrase. In English, this is mostly limited to plural noun phrases and noun phrases headed by a mass noun.

  Builders are at work.

• A noun phrase introduced by a determiner. This complex (determiner + noun phrase) is usually called a determiner phrase:

  The large car stopped outside our house.

• A gerund. These can be shown to behave as noun phrases in many respects, for example, in being able to form determiner phrases

  Eating is a pleasure.

  His constant hammering was very annoying.

• An infinitive. These can be shown to behave in many respect as embedded clauses, for example in allowing question words like "who."

  To read is easier than to write.

  Who to hire is a difficult question.

• A full clause, introduced by the complementizer that, itself containing a subject and a predicate.

  That he had travelled the world was known by everyone.

• A direct quotation:

  I love you is often heard these days.

• The subject can also be implied. In the following command, the subject is the implied "you" that is the recipient of the imperative mood.

  Take out the trash!

• An expletive. These are words like it or there when they don't refer to any thing or place. For example in the following sentence "it" doesn't refer to anything.

  It rains.

• A cataphoric it. This is the use of it when it is co-referent with a subordinate clause that comes after it.

  It was known by everyone (that) he had travelled the world.

Determiners are words which quantify or identify nouns. ... Look up plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, a determiner phrase is a syntactic category, a phrase headed by a determiner. ... In linguistics, a gerund is a non-finite verb form that exists in many languages. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ... A complementizer, as used in linguistics (especially generative grammar), is a syntactic category (part of speech), roughly equivalent to the term subordinating conjunction in traditional linguistics. ... For the Wikipedia quotation templates, see Category:Quotation templates. ... In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ... The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language. The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning to fill, via expletivus, filling out. It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding -- the padding... REFER, EP (EP stands for Empresa Publica, English, Public Enterprise) Portuguese Rail Infrastructure Manager, since 1997. ... In linguistics, cataphora is used to describe an expression that co-refers with a later expression in the discourse. ...

Definitions of subject

The subject of a sentence is sometimes defined as the argument that generally refers to the origin of the action or the undergoer of the state shown by the predicate. This is a semantic definition. Such a definition is problematic for several reasons. In languages where a passive voice exists, the subject of a passive verb may be the target or result of the action. For example: In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. ... A syntactic verb argument, in linguistics, is a phrase that appears in a relationship with the verb in a proposition. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

John was arrested.

The police arrested John.

In the first sentence (which is in the passive voice), John is the subject, while in the second sentence (active voice) the police is the subject and John is the object. Similarly, some verbs can be used both as transitive and as intransitive. An example is the English verb break: A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ... An intransitive verb is a verb that has only one argument, that is, a verb with valency equal to one. ...

John broke the chain.

The chain broke.

In the first sentence, the chain is the object, while in the second, it is the subject. But the relation of the chain to the event described by the sentence is the same in the two cases. This can be seen by considering the fact that the two sentences can be used to describe the same situation: Whenever the first sentence is true, the second one will be true, as well.

Some linguistic theories require every language to have a category of subject. However, there is no such category that is consistent for all languages.

In many languages, the subject triggers agreement morphology on the verb or auxiliary of a sentence. For example, in English one uses the form has for sentences with a singular subject, and have in sentences with a plural subject. This is a morphosyntactic definition. In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ...

She has left.

They have left.

This definition works fairly well for English, except in the case of verbs that do not agree. Examples of English verbs that never carry agreement include the modals must, can, will, might, may. The subject in English can also be identified by the fact that the interrogative clause is formed by inverting the normal subject–verb word order to verb–subject. Thus: A question is any of several kinds of linguistic expressions normally used by a questioner to request the presentation of information back to the questioner, in the form of an answer, by the audience. ... In linguistic typology, word order is the order in which words appear in sentences. ...

You won't call me.

Won't you call me?

In many languages that mark case on the arguments of a verb, the topic of the conversation tends to be placed in the nominative case, and this combination is termed the subject. Such a morphological definition is inherited from classical times. However, sometimes the subject may carry other cases, like the dative, so this definition is not perfect. Not all languages have a nominative case, and for many of these this concept of subject does not work at all: in ergative-absolutive languages neither core case, absolutive or ergative, carries the topic the way the nominative does in many nominative-accusative languages. Different theoretical traditions have treated both as subject at different times, but with no agreement. Look up case in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up topic, topicality in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... For other uses, see Morphology. ... Dative has several meanings. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In languages that lack verb agreement and morphological case marking, one must define the nominative case (if there is one) in terms of word order. For example, in Mainland Scandinavian (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish) the subject occurs either right in front of the tensed verb of a sentence, or follows the verb but precedes the object.

Finally, the subject tends to be the topic of the proposition. In languages with no other means to mark a topic, making an object into a subject by using passivization (I did it → it was done) is a way to topicalize said object. (See also topic-prominent languages.) In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about (predicated). ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ... A topic-prominent language is one that organizes its syntax so that sentences have a topic-comment (or theme-rheme) structure, where the topic is the thing being talked about (predicated) and the comment is what is said about the topic. ...

Some languages can omit the subject if it is recoverable from the context of utterance (null subject language). Many of these languages have rich subject-verb agreement (e. g. Italian) while others have no subject-verb agreement at all (Mandarin Chinese). The term pro-drop language is used for languages where pronouns can be omitted more generally, i.e. even when they are not a subject. A null subject language, in linguistic typology, is a language whose grammar permits a null subject, that is, the omission of an explicit subject in main clauses. ... This article is on all of the Northern Chinese dialects. ... A pro-drop language (from pronoun-dropping) is a language where pronouns can be deleted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable (the precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite intricate). ...

In some languages, like English or French, sentences must have a syntactical subject, either a noun or noun phrase, or a pronoun, even if the sentences do not have a semantic subject. This is why verbs like rain must carry a "subject" such as it, even if nothing is actually "doing" the raining. It is in this case an expletive and a dummy pronoun. The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language. The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning to fill, via expletivus, filling out. It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding -- the padding... A dummy pronoun (or more formally expletive pronoun or pleonastic pronoun) is a type of pronoun used in non-pro-drop languages, such as English, when a particular argument of a verb (or preposition) is nonexistent, unknown, irrelevant, already understood, or otherwise not to be spoken of directly, but a...

Subject orientation

The subject of a sentence is often privileged in various ways pertaining to its relation to other expressions in the sentence. One says that these other expressions are "subject-oriented". Examples of subject-oriented expressions include subject-oriented adverbs. Compare the following two sentences:

Clumsily, Al sat down.

Al sat down clumsily.

The first sentence means that it was clumsy of Al to sit down (though the manner in which he did so may have been elegant). The second can also mean that the manner in which Al sat down was clumsy (while it may have been highly appropriate to sit down in the first place).

Reflexive pronouns are sometimes subject-oriented. In the following sentence herself is a reflexive pronoun. In some languages, there is a difference between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns. ...

Sue assigned the best student to herself.

This sentence can only mean that Sue assigned the best student to Sue, not that she assigned the best student to the best student.

Subject, predicates and the copula

It is generally assumed that the Noun Phrase occurring with the Verb Phrase, constituting a sentence, is a subject. Copular sentences challenge this view. In a particular class of copular sentences, called "inverse copular sentences", the noun phrase which occurs with the verb phrase plays the role of predicate, occupying the position which is canonically reserved for subjects, and the subject is embedded in the verb phrase (cf. copula). This can be exemplified by pairs of sentences like these pictures of the wall are the cause of the riot (where the preverbal Noun Phrase plays the role of subject and the post-verbal one plays the role of predicate) vs the cause of the riot is these pictures of the wall (where the order is inverse). This has far reaching consequences, affecting for example the theory of expletive subjects and unaccusative verbs (cf. Moro 1997 and Hale - Keyser 2003 and references cited there). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The word expletive is currently used in three senses: syntactic expletives, expletive attributives, and bad language. The word expletive comes from the Latin verb explere, meaning to fill, via expletivus, filling out. It was introduced into English in the seventeenth century to refer to various kinds of padding -- the padding... In linguistics, an unaccusative verb is an intransitive verb whose (syntactic) subject is not a (semantic) agent; that is, it does not actively initiate, or is not actively responsible for, the action of the verb. ...

References

• Everaert, M.; van Riemsdijk, H.; Goedemans, R. (eds) 2006. The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Volumes I–V, Blackwell, London.
• Hale, K.; Keyser, J. (2002). "Prolegomena to a theory of argument structure", Linguistic Inquiry Monograph, 39, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Huddleston, R.; Pullum, K. (2005). A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press.
• Moro, A. (1997). The raising of predicates. Predicative noun phrases and the theory of clause structure, Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.

See also

• Object (grammar)
• Subjective (grammar)
• Sentence (linguistics)
• Copula