2.1. THE SUBJECT.

EXERCISES

The subject simultaneously completes and opposes the predicate. The

subject performs two syntactic functions: categorical and relating.
The categorical function of the subject lies in that it names the thing or
person whose property is indicated by the predicate. The compulsory two-member
structure of the English sentence makes the subject an essential sentence
constituent.
The relating function of the subject presupposes that the subject is the
starting element in consecutive syntagmatic development of the sentence. The
subject is the left-hand surrounding of the predicate that is opposed to its right-
hand surrounding, to the object or objects.
As part of the sentence, the subject is formed only in opposition to the
predicate. If the predicate is missing, the noun in the common case is not
necessarily the subject of the sentence. (Components of one-member sentences
such as Night or She are not subjects but elements that combine the features of the
subject and the predicate.) On the other hand, it is the quantitative meaning of the
noun-subject that defines the verb form when its number is concerned (cf. The
government have not agreed on the economic policy of the state and The bread
and cheese was brought in).
In discussing problems of the subject, we must mention the argument about
sentences of the following type: It took Mary some time to understand the
situation. Two views have been put forward concerning such sentences. One lies in
that the pronoun it at the beginning of the sentence is the formal subject, and the
real subject is the Infinitive (in this particular case, to understand). According to
the other viewpoint, it is the subject of the sentence, and the Infinitive – an
apposition to it.
The subject denotes the thing (in the widest sense of the word) whose action
or characteristic is expressed by the. It is the independent member of a two-
member sentence containing the person component of predication. The subject, as
is known, may be expressed by different parts of speech, even by prepositions and
other functional parts of speech if they are substantivized (e.g.: "The" is an
article).
In Modern English there also exist the so-called "complex subjects"
expressed by various predicative constructions, such as the Subjective-with-the-
Infinitive construction, Subjective-with-the-Participle construction, the For-phrase:
a) He was seen to enter the room b) He was seen entering the room c) For me to
go there now is impossible.
It is maintained by grammarians that a secondary predication is observed
between the components of complex subjects because the relations between them
resemble the relations between the subject and the predicate of full-fledged
sentences.

1. Nouns as the subject

 In British English collective nouns army, audience, choir, clan, company,
court are singular in form but they can be followed by either a singular or a plural
verb. They require a predicate in the singular if they denote a group as a single
undivided body e.g. The multiparty government of national unity has remained
intact (Newsweek) and a predicate in the plural when the noun denotes people e.g.
The government have asked me to go.
Collective nouns denoting individuals (cattle, poultry, police, guard,
infantry, militia, clergy, gentry etc) are singular in form, but require a plural verb-
predicate: e.g. Chicago police As wan other agenda (Newsweek);
Subjects expressed by invariable singular nouns (hair, money, gate,
information, funeral, progress, advice) have a singular verb-predicate: e.g. Money
doesn't talk, it swears (B.Dylan);
Subjects expressed by invariable singular nouns ending in -s (measles,
mumps, billiards, dominoes, news, headquarters, works, linguistics, economics
etc.) have a singular verb-predicate: No news is good news.
The names of sciences and other abstract notions in -ics (politics, tactics,
statistics, ethics, gymnastics etc.) may have a plural verb-predicate when denoting
qualities, practical application, different activities: Politics is a nasty profession –
What are your politics?
Subjects expressed by invariable plurals /goods, contents, riches, clothes,
wages, saves etc/ have a plural verb: The goods were delivered on time.

2. Pronouns as the subject

a) indefinite pronouns (each, either, every, nobody, none, no one etc.)
usually require a singular verb: None of those people was interesting.
Sometimes there is a clash of agreement within a given sentence: No one in
their senses wants to create instability (D.Healey);
b) the pronoun all takes a singular verb when it denotes things /e.g. All is
well that ends well/ and a verb in the plural in the sense "people" / All lay load on
the willing horse/;
c) the pronoun both has a plural verb: Which of the books is yours? – Both
are mine;
d) interrogative pronouns who and what have a singular verb: e.g. Who has
come.'?
But if the pronoun denotes more than one person or thing a plural verb-
predicate may be used: Who are walking in their garden?
e) the form of relative pronouns depends on the noun or pronoun which is its
antecedent: Do you know the girls who live next door?
One of the characteristic features of Modern English is that, unlike in
Ukrainian, there exist the so-called formal and introductory (anticipatory,
provisional) subjects (the anticipatory "it", the introductory "there"): 1. It is
raining now (the pronoun "it" is used here as a formal subject. Also in the
sentence: It is cold here). 2. It is necessary to go there now ("It" is used as an
anticipatory subject). 3. There is a book on the table. (The word "there" is used as
an anticipatory subject).

3. Pronoun it as the subject

 When the pronoun it is the subject of a sentence refers to living beings or
things it is used as a notional subject, with a demonstrative (e.g. It's the capital of
this country) or personal meaning (e.g. The door opened, it was opened by a young
girl of fourteen).
The pronoun it as auxiliary subject performs several functions.
a) the formal it is used to describe: various states of nature (It's drizzling);
time and other measurements (e.g. It’s 5o'clock).
Many useful time expressions of time can be made up with the help of the
formal it.
You can say when something happened using when (It was eleven o'clock at
night when 16 armed men came to my house).
You can say how long ago something happened using since: e.g. It's two
weeks now since I wrote to you. You can say how long the interval was between
one event and another using before (It was ninety days before his search was over).
b) the introductory (preparatory) it is used to introduce the notional subject
expressed by the non-finite forms of the verb (verbals) or subordinate clauses
(subject clauses): It’s impossible to deny it. – To deny this is impossible. The
sentences with the introductory it seem to be more colloquial while sentences
without it belong to formal style.
c) the emphatic it is used to emphasize different parts of a sentence: e.g. It
was Winifred who went up to him (Galsworthy).

4. There as the subject

Sentences introduced by the formal subject There express the existence or
coming into existence of a person or an inanimate object. Therefore these
sentences are called existential sentences:
e.g. There was something wrong about the whole situation.
Besides the verb to be the predicates of such sentences can be expressed by
the verbs to appear, to live, to come, to go which is more characteristic of the
formal style: Once upon a time there lived man.
With there-constructions followed by the nouns of different number the
predicate agrees with the noun that stands first: There was a text-book and many
notebooks on the table.
However, in colloquial English a singular verb can be used with a noun in
the plural: There's two kinds of men here, you will find.
A plural form of be is used in front of numerical expressions beginning with
a (a hundred, a thousand, a dozen) and in front of quantifiers beginning with the
indefinite article (a number of, a lot of a few of): There were a lot of people
camped here.

5. Numerical expressions as the subject

a) arithmetical additions, substraction, division require a predicate in the
singular: e.g. Four minus two is two;
b) the subject expressed by fractions requires a predicate which agrees with
the noun following the subject: A third of the country was protestant – 99 per cent
of evangelical ministers in the region were born and bred there (Newsweek);
 c) subjects expressed by nouns denoting measure, weight, time etc.
have a singular verb-predicate when a statement is made about the whole
amount, not about the units: Four years of retirement has produced some answers
(Newsweek);
d) the group many+a requires a verb in the singular: Many a lie has been
told.

6. The infinitive and the gerund as subjects

An infinitive phrase or gerund as the subject requires a verb-predicate in the
singular: To know everything is to know nothing.

7. Phrasal (composite) subject

a) the nouns in the singular joined by and normally form a plural subject and
require a plural verb: Unreason and inevitability go hand in hand.
But a composite subject may occasionally be thought of as single unit and is
then followed by a singular verb: The innocence and purity of their singing comes
from their identification with the character (Levin);
b) when the subjects in the singular are connected by the conjunctions
as well as, together with, accompanied by, not to mention, along with the
verb is in the singular if the first subject is felt to be dominant: Hadrian, as well as
Trajan is recorded as disputing in these exercises (Gibbon).
This pattern requires a verb in the plural if both subjects are judged to be of
equal standing: The garden and the quiet of evening, with the smells of honey-
suckle and lavender, were the same (Price).
c) with subjects connected by the conjunctions not only...but also, either…or
or, neither...nor the verb agrees with the nearest noun-subject (according to the
proximity rule): Neither you nor I am right – Neither I nor you are right.
d) the names, titles, quotations expressed by phrases and plural nouns require
a verb in the singular: The Times is a broad sheet paper (a quality paper).
 EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Point out the subject and say by what it is expressed.

Translate into Ukrainian
1. At that moment the postman, looking like a German army officer, came in
with the mail. (Mansfield) 2. The clock struck eight. There was no sign of any of
the other guests. (Huxley) 3. Now, there is something peculiarly intimate in sharing
an umbrella. (Mansfield)4. Together we walked through the mud and slush.
(Mansfield) 5. Something impersonal and humble in that action seemed to reassure
the Consul. (Cronin) 6. The sight of them, so intent and so quick, gave Bertha a
curious shiver. (Mansfield) 7. Eight o'clock in the morning. Miss Ada Moss lay in
a black iron bedstead, staring up at the ceiling. (Mansfield) 8. Still, the good of
mankind was worth working for. (Galsworthy) 9. Sometimes the past injects itself
into the present with a peculiar force. (Heym) 10. Forgetting some things is a
difficult matter. (Voynich) 11. To cross from one end to the other was difficult
because of the water. (Heym) 12. "A person doesn't have to be rich to be clean,"
Charles said. (Braine) 13. There was an eagerness and excitement in the faces of
the men. (Heym) 14. ...and Timothy's was but one of hundreds of such homes in
this City of London... (Galsworthy) 15. Let's get out quick. It's no good wasting
time. (Maugham) 16. "Very well," said Soames, "then we know where we arc."
(Galsworthy) 17. Now, to go through a stormy night and with wet clothes, and, in
addition, to be ill nourished and not to have tasted meat for a week or a month, is
about as severe a hardship as a man can undergo. (London) 18. She did not know.
The "No" was stronger than her craving to be in Frisco's arms and forget this
dreary existence. (Prichard) 19. The mining industry might make wealth and
power for a few men and women. But the many would always be smashed and
battered beneath its giant treads. (Prichard) 20. Yes, that did sound rather far-
fetched and absurd. (Mansfield) 21. This, of course, in her present mood, was so
incredibly beautiful... She began to laugh. (Mansfield) 22. To live on good terms
with people one must share their work and interests. (Prichard) 23. These three
deemed themselves the queens of the school. (Ch. Bronte) 24. Who were these
people? What are they? (Galsworthy) 25. His was the harsh world of reality. No
one could walk around his drawing. (Stone) 26. Governing the district of Cremmen
wasn't turning out to be an easy and pleasant job. (Heym) 27. The firing increased
in volume. (Heym) 28. High and low all made fun of him. (Thackeray) 29. For a
woman to look at her best is a point of discipline. (James) 30. Your coming home
has made me as foolish as a young girl of nineteen. (Abrahams) 31. And now his
heir and nephew, Thomas Esmond, began to bid for his uncle's favour.
(Thackeray)

Exercise 2. State the nature of "it". Translate into Ukrainian

1. It was dusky in the dining-room and quite chilly. (Mansfield) 2. The bell
rang. It was lean, pale Eddie Warren in a state of acute distress. (Mansfield) 3. Oh!
Oh! Oh! It was a little house. It was a little pink house. (Mansfield) 4. But in her
bosom there was still that bright glowing place. It was almost unbearable.
(Mansfield) 5. She sat up, but she felt quite dizzy, quite drunk. It must have been
the spring. (Mansfield) 6. It was marvellous to be made love like that. (Prichard) 7.
It is the moon that makes you talk to yourself in that silly way. (Shaw) 8. It is very
distressing to me, Sir, to give this information. (Dickens) 9. He took the path
through the fields: it was pleasanter than the road. (Huxley) 10. If this is liberty, it
isn't going to mean a thing. (Heym) 11. It was now almost four-thirty in the
afternoon. (Dreiser) 12.I took a good room. It was very big and light and looked
out on the lake. (Hemingway)

Exercise 3. Determine what parts of speech the subject is expressed

by
1. Being a husband is a whole-timed job. That is why so many husbands fail.
They cannot give their entire attention to it (A.Bennet). 2. Fear is the main source
of superstition and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the
beginning of wisdom (B.Russel). 3. As soon as there were two there was pride
(Donne). 4. The weak sometimes wish to be thought wicked, but the wicked wish
to be thought virtuous (Vauvenargues). 5. It costs a great deal to be reasonable; it
coats youth (Madame de la Fayette). 6. It's been a hard, day's night, and I've been
working like a dog (The Beatles). 7. Taller Americans are more likely to get to
higher positions in their organization (G.AIthen).

Exercise 4. Choose the correct form of the predicate to agree it with

the subject expressed by a noun.
1. Greedy folk (to have) long arms. 2. Police (to be) considering the use of a
new type of CS spray (DE). 3. On the continent people (to have) good food; in
England people (to have) good table manners (G.Mikes). 4. Police (to say) that
Jains received millions of rupees (Newsweek). 5. Today there (to be) bad news
from the world of lingerie for Asian leaders (Newsweek). 6. The family (to be) still
at table, but they had finished breakfast (M.Twain). 7. The newly married pair (to
be) received by the chief butler when they came yesterday (Ch. Dickens). 8. Tom's
whole class (to be) restless, noisy and troublesome (M.Twain). 9. The loving
couple (to be) no longer happy (Reade). 10. The family party (to be) seated round
the table in the dark parlour when I came in (Eliot).

Exercise 7. Choose the correct form of the predicate to agree it with

the subject expressed by a pronoun or a numerical expression.
1. All that (to glitter) (to be) not gold. 2. All (to be) not merry that dance
lightly. 3. All (to be) not friends that speak us fair. 4. He that (to commit) a fault
thinks everybody (to be) speaking of it. 5. Half a loaf (to be) better than no bread.
6. No one (to know) exactly how many Protestants there are in Latin America, but
everyone (to agree) the number is exploding. 7. There (to be) quite a number
present (Walpole). 8. There (to be) a number of things, Martin, you don't
understand (J. London). 9. There (to be) a great many ink bottles (Ch. Dickens).
10. There (to be) many a true word spoken in jest.