A sentence differs from a phrase by the presence of a predicative core - a grammatical basis. It consists of the main members: subject and predicate. Parsing always begins with a search for one or two main components.
Without a predicative core in which the meaning of a statement is contained, a sentence cannot exist. Minor members, if any, are always included in the group of the subject or predicate, that is, they depend on them syntactically.
How to isolate the grammatical basis of the sentence?
To do this, you need to determine what is subject and predicate.
The main members are connected to each other according to the scheme: the subject and his action. In this construction, the predicate can answer verbal questions, and also reveal a judgment about the actor - the subject (what is the subject, what is it, and so on).
In the framework of this article, we will dwell on only one of the main members of the proposal. The subjective meaning of the subject, on the one hand, simplifies understanding, and on the other hand introduces a certain confusion. Students often put a mental equal sign between the objectivity of a given syntactic unit and the meaning of a noun. But this main term can be expressed differently.
As we know, the subject answers the questions: "Who?" or “What?”, but, nevertheless, all parts of speech, including service ones, play its role. The key to understanding what a subject is is its significance as a subject of action.
The main ways to express the subject:
- noun;
- full forms of participles and adjectives;
- pronoun;
- numeral;
- indivisible combinations of words.
For instance:
Moonlight (n.) Does not warm.
Gray (adj.) Ran through the forest.
Vacationers (pr.) Walked along the alley.
They (loc.) Will be back tomorrow. Any (local) will solve this problem.
One (num.) Came back.
My grandmother and I will go to the cottage.
It is worth remembering that in these cases the word should be exclusively in the nominative case. If this is not so, it means that we are not subject, but a secondary member of the sentence:
I (R.p., add.) Drove me to sleep (V.p., add.).
The infinitive, as well as the immutable parts of speech, can act as a subject:
To love a (neoprf.) Country means to be its patriot.
"Yesterday" (nar.) Has already passed.
"Silence" is the germs.
In this case, the words lose their initial grammatical meaning (additional action, circumstances, etc.) and act as the subject. The same applies to the service parts of speech :
“To” is a union, and “let” is a particle.
By the way, the question of what is subject is closely related to punctuation. If the main members of the sentence are expressed by the nominal parts of speech (except for the adjective and pronoun) or the infinitive, then it is necessary to put a dash between the subject and the predicate.
Examples:
Helping (neopr.) Others is a matter (n) of my life.
Andreev (n.) - prose writer (n.).
A family of eight (num.) - Forty eight (num.).
Be sure to put a dash in front of the word “ this ”, as well as the particles “z zachit ” and “ here ” in front of the predicate. But this rule has its own characteristics. If there is a denial of “ not ” between the main members, comparative unions and uncoordinated members of the proposal, the need for some punctuation mark disappears.
So what is the subject? Firstly, it is one of the two components of the grammatical basis. Secondly, this main member of the sentence has the meaning of the subject. Thirdly, any part of speech or a combination of words can be subject.