The Principal Parts of the Sentence

In a sentence we distinguish the principal parts, secondary parts and independent elements. The principal parts of a sentence are the subject and the predicate. The secondary parts are the attribute, the object and the adverbial modifier.

The subject

The subject is the principal part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part (the predicate) is grammatically dependent, in most cases it agrees with the subject in number and person. The subject can denote a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea.

Ways of expressing the subject.

The subject can be expressed by a single word or a group of words. It can be expressed by:

1. A noun in the common case.

e.g. The sulky waiter brought my tea.

2. A pronoun – personal, demonstrative, defining, indefinite, negative, possessive, interrogative.

e.g. Who tore this book?

e.g. Theirs is not a very comfortable lodging.

The subject is often expressed by the indefinite pronoun one or the personal pronoun they, you , we, which refer not to any particular person or persons but to people in general. Sometimes they are rendered by impersonal sentences.

e.g. One wants to live forever. Хочеться жити вічно.

3. A substantivized adjective or participle.

e.g. The wounded were taken good care of.

4. A numeral (cardinal or ordinal).

e.g. The first and third were standing by the wall.

5.An infinitive, an infinitive phrase or construction.

e.g. For him to come was impossible.

6. A gerund, a gerundial phrase or construction.

e.g. Winning the war is what counts.

7. Any part of speech used as a quotation.

e.g. On is a preposition.

8. A group of words which is one part of the sentence, i.e. syntactically indivisible group. Here the subject represents one person.

e.g. His friend and defender was passing away at the moment.

This is not to be confused with homogeneous subjects where two persons or things are meant and consequently the predicate is in the plural.

e.g. Doubt and distrust were exhibited in his countenance. (a face, an expression of smb’s face)

There are other kinds of syntactic units.

e.g. There is a lot of truth in that.

There are sentences where the subject is introduced by the construction there is, e.g. There is nothing on the table. Nothing is the subject and there is part of the predicate.

“It” as the subject of the sentence

When the pronoun “it” is used as the subject of a sentence it may represent a living being or a thing: then it does not represent any living being or thing and performs a purely grammatical function: then it is a formal subject.

1. When it is a notional subject the pronoun “it” has the following meanings:

1. “It” stands for a definite thing or some abstract idea – the personal it.

e.g. It was stolen by the criminal.

2. “It” points out some person or thing expressed by a predicative noun, or it refers to the thought contained in a preceding statement, thus having a demonstrative meaning – the demonstrative “it”.

e.g. It is John.

e.g. Dick came home late, it provoked his father.

B. Sometimes the pronoun “it” is a formal subject, i.e. it does not represent any person or thing. Here we must distinguish:

(1) the impersonal “it”

(2) the introductory “it”

(3) the emphatic “it”

1. The impersonal “it” is used:

1. to denote natural phenomena or that what characterizes the environment. In such sentences the predicate is either a simple one, expressed by a verb denoting the state of the weather, or a compound nominal one, with an adjective as predicative.

e.g. It often rains in autumn. It is stuffy here.

NOTE: The state of the weather can also be expressed by sentences in which the subject denoting the state of things is introduced by the construction there is. In such sentences the noun introduced by the construction there is. In such sentences the noun introduced by the construction there is is the subject.

e.g. There was a heavy frost last night.

(b) to denote time and distance.

e.g. It is a long way to the station.

e.g. It is five minutes past six.

e.g. How far is it from your office to the bank?

NOTE: Sentences with the impersonal “it” as subject very often corresponds to Ukrainian impersonal one-member sentences.

e.g. It is late. Пізно.

e.g. It is freezing. Морозить.

The following sentences, however, correspond to Ukrainian two-member personal sentences:

e.g. It is hailing. Паде град.