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      TeachingEnglish
      Subject-predicate
      Submitted by mikito on 28 November, 2011 - 12:47

      1.- (To turn back) now would be a mistake.

       

      (To turn back) is the subject? 

       

      2.- (Bringing your brother) was a great idea.

       

      (Bringing your brother) is the subject?

       

      3.- I´ve just received (a letter)from the major.

       

      (a letter) is a direct object?

       

      4.-( Having read the paper), I started working

       

      ( Having read the paper) is the predicate?

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      Heath's picture
      Heath
      Nominal groups and subjects
      Submitted on 25 December, 2011 - 03:04

      This is why I prefer functional grammar terms.  It's easier to see some of these as 'nominal groups' than it is to see them as 'subjects'.

       

      1. To turn back now 

      In this case 'now' is a key part of that nominal group that makes up the subject rather than a preposition - an easy way to test this is to try to move it around.  If you could say "Now to turn back" without changing the meaning, then it would be a separate preposition phrase.

      2. Yes.

      3. Yes.

      4. started working 

      "Having read the paper" is an adverbial providing the circumstances, similar to a preposition phrase, like "After lunch".  The main part of the sentence is "I started working", which is made up of subject (the first nominal group, in this case "I") and predicate (the verb phrase, in this case "started", and any nominal groups linked to it - direct and indirect objects).

       

      I made these notes without going back to any specific sources, so please correct me if I've made a slip somewhere - 99.99% sure though.