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Unit 2. The function of the subject - Coggle Diagram
Unit 2. The function of the subject
The subject and its concordance
The grammatical agreement is the agreement of the grammatical accidents of the words that are related to each other within a sentence, governing each other.
Agreement between subject and verb: The verb agrees with the nucleus of its subject in number and grammatical persons.
• If the nuclei of a compound subject represent different grammatical persons, for concordance the first person is preferred to the second, and the latter to the third. As for the number, since it is a compound subject, the verb is plural.
• If the nucleus of the subject is a collective noun followed by a complement whose term is in the plural, the verb will be able to agree indistinctly, already in the singular with the collective nucleus, and in the plural with the term of the complement.
• When in a compound subject, one of its nuclei summarizes or significantly contains all the others, the verb agrees in the singular with said nucleus.
• When the singular nuclei of a compound subject are united by the NI and O coordinators, it is frequent and possible to use the verb already in the singular, or in the plural.
• When the nuclei of a compound subject are neutral forms, the verb is used in the singular.
• When the nuclei of a compound subject are infinitive, the verb is used in the singular.
Syntagmatics of the subject
Set of at least two elements united by a functional relationship, that is, united by a dependency relationship.
Subject
• Semantically: It is that of which something is affirmed or denied.
• Functionally: It is the immediate constituent of a sentence that is not the predicate.
• Formally: It is the immediate constituent of a sentence that requires the other constituent - the predicate - to agree with it in number, person and gender.
Subject and impersonality
In a (too) broad sense, we call any sentence without a subject impersonal sentence.
False impersonal (impersonal semantics)
They do not have a subject but can have it (= is omitted). They have a generic subject (any), unknown or not interested in mentioning.
True impersonal (syntactic impersonal)
They neither have a subject nor can they have it. The causes of impersonality are syntactic (verbs that do not sub-categorize - do not require - subject or syntactic structures in which the subject position is blocked by a clit).
The subject and use of the preposition
The subject can have as a complement all the words that are attached to it, with or without a preposition.
The subject and countable nouns
Countable nouns
They point out entities that can be counted, for example five children, three rocks, thirteen euros. Countable nouns are combined with plural quantifiers without being semantically altered.
The nouns used in different sentences can perform different functions such as:
• Circumstantial complement
• Agent
• Indirect modifier
• Predicative function