The subject subject is two or more individual noun phrases that are coordinated to form a longer single noun phrase. Compound subjects cause many difficulties in the proper use of grammatical agreements between subjects and other entities (verbs, pronouns, etc.). In fact, these issues are not specific to such a composite subject, coming as good as the noun phrases nouns of all kinds, but the most acute problem with compound subjects because of the many types of agreements that occur with the subject.
As shown in the example, for English combined subjects followed by and , agreement rules are generally unambiguous, but sometimes difficult. For example, the combined subjects you and I are treated equally with us , take the appropriate pronominal agreement (" car " instead of "your car" , "their car", etc.). In languages ​​with broader verb-subject agreements (eg Spanish or Arabic), verb agreements are clearly revealed as also being the first plural.
For subjects who are affiliated with or , however, rules are often unclear, especially when two distinct elements in grammatical gender or grammatical numbers coordinate. (The tendency, in such cases, is to rewrite the sentence to avoid conjunctions: for example "Sylvia and I each have our own car, and one of us plans to sell their car." Note that this still has a combined subject using < i> and as conjunctions, and using their generic "semi-informal" "to solve their problems." This can be avoided by further rewriting: "Maybe Sylvia will sell her car , or I'll sell mine. "
Video Compound subject
General worries
Additional concerns appear on combined subjects in languages ​​other than English. In many European languages, for example, standard problems occur with mixed-sex mixed subjects. This issue does not appear in English, because they do not have gender. But e.g. French has a masculine language vs. feminine elles ; Spain also has a masculine ellos vs. feminine ellas . In addition, Arabic has gender and person and agreement number on the verb, and more specifically in literary language and in more conservative oral varieties, there is gender agreement with third persons plural subjects.
In addition, some languages ​​allow subjects to follow the verbs: either optionally for stylistic reasons, such as in German, Latin or sometimes in English ("Now include John, Jim, and their wives"); as normal circumstances, such as in Classical and Irish Arabic, where the subject precedes the verb is only for force reasons; or even as mandatory requirement, in the language with the V-S-O or V-O-S wording and the wording remains strong. These languages ​​often use different strategies to handle the subject after vs. before the verb: for example, tends to prefer the "agree with the closest sentence" strategy to the next subject, for pragmatic reasons, even when the "agree with the whole" strategy is used in other circumstances.
Various strategies have been used to handle commonly combined subjects and category disagreements between/among the coordinate members of the subject. Language is often different in which strategy they use. Among the strategies are:
- General agreement: Consider the total set of entities involved, do the properties, and assign the appropriate pronoun. (For example if a collection of entities includes two women referred to a third person, and the language has double grammar, as in Arabic, then the group property will be "double number, female, third person", with appropriate pronouns Hum ? .)
- Nearest agreement: Simply agree with the noun phrase constituent closest to the verb, and ignore the rest. This generally applies only to verb-subject agreements; pronominal agreement is based on its nature remotely, so the concept of "nearest" is less reasonable in this case.
- If you use "general agreement" and there is disagreement between properties (eg some men, some women), either:
- Choose one (the traditional rule for most languages ​​is to treat mixed groups as men; some modern rules, on the other hand, call for randomly selecting one sex or another, or selecting men and women consecutively consecutively, or even simply by selecting female sex in all cases).
- Use the construction (eg "he", "hers", "ours") that captures both or all property values ​​that do not agree. Often this is considered awkward and should be avoided.
Maps Compound subject
Additional concerns in English
An additional concern in English is that there are special rules for pronouns in the combined subjects. Although English has different words morphology in the pronoun (eg i vs. i ), grammar not the verbal language characteristic of life, and hence the case-based term subjective case (eg for i ) vs. objective cases (eg for me ) are misleading. In general, in spoken language, I is the default form, but I for the argument of a verb when it occurs directly before the verb is limited. On the other hand, in a composite subject in an informal conversation, me happens in this position, for example Johnny and I will come tomorrow (probably because of a lack of a direct deal between and is ).
Children are often taught in school that they should always order themselves after someone else in the combined subject and use me , say Johnny and me instead of me and Johnny . Although intended specifically for the subject compound, when adopted by the speakers is usually generalized to unite the object , leading to a turn like between me and you vs between you and me .
References
- Everaert, M.; van Riemsdijk, H.; Goedemans, R. (eds) 2006. Blackwell Companion for syntax , Volume I-V, Blackwell, London.
- Halliday, M.A.K & amp; Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M (2004). Subjects, actors, themes in Introduction to functional grammar . Hodder Arnold, London, England.
- Huddleston, R.; Pullum, K. (2005). Introductory students for English grammar. Cambridge University Press.
See also
- Subject (grammar)
- Object (grammar)
- Subjective (grammar)
- Grammatical case
- English pronoun
- Verb agreement of the subject
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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