Syntactic Functions of the NP
Syntactic Functions of the NP
THE SUBJECT
Different languages have specific ways of marking the subject
NP: synthetic languages have specialized case inflections which
signal subjecthood (the Nominative case in Romance languages),
other languages mark this function by a well-known position in the
sentence (clause-initial in English, clause-final in Malgasy).
Therefore a universal definition of the subject would have to
capture all these language-specific possibilities.
English identifies the Subject by the position it has in the
sentence: initially in affirmative sentences and in wh-questions in
which the wh-element questions the Subject:
Unfortunately, [all guests] left early.
[Swimming in cold water] may affect your health.
[Who] won the competition?
[How many] gave up the race?
In yes-no interrogative clauses the operator precedes the
Subject:
Did [you] know the answer?
Have [you] found out the truth?
In wh-questions which do not question the Subject but other
parts of the sentence, the Subject is preceded by the wh-element
and by the operator:
Whom did [you] meet yesterday?
How does [swimming in cold water] affect your health?
The Subject plays an important part in the formation of
tag-questions. Pronouns refer back to the Subject of the basic
clause:
Your brother goes in for bungy jumping, doesnt he?
Not many people would attend such a meeting, would they?
Agreement features
NPs functioning as Subjects agree with the verb in number and
person. When the head of the Subject NP is a collective noun,
agreement with the verb depends on how the referent is visualised
by the speaker: as a whole or as individual members of a group,
each involved in a certain action)
[My family] have decided to move to London.(all members)
[The average British family] has 3.6 members. (as a whole)
The Subject determines the number in reflexive pronouns and the
number of predicative NPs:
[Joe] and [Tim] are my brothers.
[They] enjoyed themselves at the party.
The realization of the Subject
The Subject may be realised (expressed) by various types of
phrases:
1. a simple NP (containing a noun, a deverbal noun, a pronoun,
an adjective, a numeral):
The museum was the main repository for the countrys
antiquities.
Everything went on just as before.
The poor will still have hoe in the justice of the
revolution.
Will the accused please, stand?
The first stopped before the door.
Smoking damages your health.
Pleonastic pronouns IT and THERE can only occur in Subject
position. They are felt to be semantically empty, i.e. they lack
meaning. They function as grammatical subjects which anticipate the
real (logical or semantic subjects) of the sentence:
[To leave] is easy.
[It] is easy [to leave].
gr.Su logical Su
[That he is right] is obvious.
[It] is obvious [that he is right].
gr.Su logical Su
[A man] was at the door.
[There] was [a man] at the door.
gr.Su logical Su
[A beautiful woman] came.
[There] came [a beautiful woman].
gr.Su logical Su
2. a complex NP (an NP whose head N has adjuncts which consist
of PPs or relative clauses):
[ NP The girl [PP with a funny]] hat is my friend.
[ NP The excerpts [PP from the Bible]] impressed the
audience.
[ NP The topics [CP we discussed ]] were well above the
average.
3. a clausal NP, i.e. an that-complement clause, an infinitive
or a gerundial clause:
[ CP That he did not have any chance] is clear to everyone.
[ CP To run away from responsibility] is cowardice.
[ Showing tourists the sights of the city] is her job.
Thematic roles of the subject
The phrase functioning as Subject can bear almost every type of
thematic role:
The boy kicked the ball.
Agent
The ball was kicked.
Patient (affected participant)
New houses were soon built.
Patient (effected participant)
Jane could admire the landscape.Experiencer
The living-room reeked of tobacco. Location
The bomb destroyed the city.
Instrument
2
