The location of the subject is one of the questions in which one must not make mistakes in the syntactic analysis of a sentence; since if the subject is not pointed out correctly, the rest of the analysis will be chaotic and wrong. For this reason, in The Guide 2000, we propose a series of exercises to practice locating the subject in syntactic analysis.
Exercises:
1. Indicate to which sentence the following subjects belong:
– Subjects:
1. My cousin's daughter.
2. Grandma's trunk.
3. Bumper cars.
4. I
5. The girls on the corner.
– Sentences:
a) They are nurses at the hospital where I work.
b) I'm going to go to the party that Pedro gives at his house
c) He was born on Valentine's Day.
d) he is very old
e) are very funny.
2. Locate the subject in the following sentences:
1. It was raining cats and dogs that afternoon.
2. The deadly sins are seven.
3. I like the chocolate cakes my mother makes.
4. She hasn't found out that she has already arrived
5. The exhibition was opened by the mayor.
6. I'm so excited for you to get married.
3. Build subjects that fit the following schemes:
1. For the sentence “they are very scary”, build a subject composed of a determiner + a phrasenoun + a prepositional phrase.
2. For the sentence “he is very concerned about what I might think”, construct a subject that is a noun phrase whose head is a pronoun.
3. For the sentence “I really like it”, construct a subject that is a subordinate noun based on the subject.
Solutions:
1. Indicate to which sentence the following subjects belong:
– 1. C): My cousin's daughter was born on Valentine's Day.
– 2. D): Grandma's trunk is very old.
– 3. E): Coke cars are so much fun.
– 4. B): I am going to go to the party that Pedro gives at his house.
– 5. A): The girls in the corner are nurses at the hospital where I work.
2. Locate the subject in the following sentences:
1. It was raining cats and dogs that afternoon > Impersonal (it has no subject because the verbal nucleus is a verb that indicates a meteorological phenomenon).
2. The deadly sins are seven > Subject: The deadly sins.
3. I like the chocolate cakes my mother makes > Subject: The chocolate cakes my mother makes.
4. She has not found out that she has already arrived > Subject of “has arrived”: She and subject of “has arrived”: He or she (omitted).
5. The exhibition was opened by the mayor > Patient subject: The exhibition.
6. I am very excited that you marry > Noun subordinate depending on the subject: That you marry and subject of “cases”: You (omitted).
3. Build subjects that fit thefollowing schemes:
1. For the sentence “they are very scary”, construct a subject composed of a determiner + a noun phrase + a prepositional phrase.
Example: Horror movies are really scary.
2. For the sentence “he is very concerned about what I might think”, construct a subject that is a noun phrase whose head is a pronoun.
Example: He is very worried about what I might think.
3. For the sentence “I really like it”, construct a subject that is a subordinate noun based on the subject.
Example: I really like that you come to see me.
