Definitions of Subject
The concept of subject is sometimes mixed with that of actor or agent and other times with that of carrier of attributes. When this happens, it is defined as the argument that generally refers to the origin of the action or the undergoer of the state shown by the predicate. This definition takes the representation of the sentence into account, but it is problematic for several reasons. While interpreting the subject as the actor or agent of the action, two rather different concepts are overlayed. For instance, in the passive voice the subject is the goal, middle or patient/target of the action; for example:
- Anggia was arrested by the police.
- The police arrested Anggia.
In the first sentence (which is in the passive voice), the subject is Anggia, while in the second sentence (active voice) it is the police. But when it comes to the representation of the action, the actor in both sentences is the police and the goal of the action is Anggia.
Similarly, some verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively. An example of these is the English verb break:
- Anggia broke the chain.
- The chain broke.
In the first sentence, the subject is Anggia, while in the second one it is the chain. But in the representation of the action or event, the chain plays the same role in both cases, that being the one to which the process is done or happens. This can be seen by considering the fact that the two sentences can be used to describe the same happening. Whenever the first sentence is true, the second one will be true as well, though in the second one it is pictured to have happened without an agent.
Read more about this topic: Subject (grammar)
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