Please tell me the subject of this sentence?

Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by vanilla16, Jul 4, 2011.

  1. vanilla16

    vanilla16 New Member

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    So were is incorrect?
     
  2. polarboy

    polarboy New Member

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    You're right, of course. Thanks for correcting that mistake.
     
  3. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    Ask yourself, what is infectious? Is it the girl that's infectious or is it the vitality and humor that are infectious? Other people don't catch the girl, they catch the vitality and humor, so it's "vitality and humor" that is the head of the noun phrase. That's two items, so the sentence takes a plural verb, "were".
     
  4. AmandaKBrown3

    AmandaKBrown3 New Member

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    I suppose I didn't explain my answer well enough. The reasons I said "The girl's vitality and humor" was the entire subject were that, firstly, "The" applies to the whole of the phrase "girl's vitality and humor" (which, acting as a noun phrase, could be substituted by almost anything with the same effect) -- and secondly, "The girl's vitality and humor" could all be replaced by "they" (yes, vitality and humor are the important part of the subject, but the fact that the whole of the phrase can be included in the substitution shows that all pieces are a part of the subject, if it is the whole subject that is desired).

    On a side train of thought, I also figured that the sentence could be expanded this way: "The girl's vitality and the girl's humor were..." making it a compound subject, but showing it to be the subject nonetheless.

    Sorry if this makes no sense, I just wanted to put up my reasoning in case there was a flaw in it! I haven't taken a grammar class for over a year, so I may be a little rusty.

    I guess my reasoning could be summed up as: "The girl's vitality and humor" is acting as a noun phrase, which, in basic terms makes it the (complete) subject.
     
  5. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    No, that's not right. "The" qualifies just "girl". Whose vitality and humor? The girl's.
    Yes, that analysis is correct.
    Yes, and that's why it takes "were", not "was".
    It's doing more that acting as a noun phrase, it is a noun phrase!
     
  6. AmandaKBrown3

    AmandaKBrown3 New Member

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    Thanks! That helps me a lot.
     
  7. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    here's how this sentence would be diagrammed [sorry i can't do it properly here, with all those nice straight and dialgonal lines!]:

    sentence: The girl’s vitality and humor were infectious.

    compound subject/nouns: vitality and humor

    modifying the subject: what/whose vitality and humor?... 'the girl's...

    predicate/verb: were

    object/predicate adjective: were what?... 'infectious'

    for all the whys and wherefores, i suggest you browse these sites/pages...
    http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/objects.htm
    http://www.google.com/webhp?rls=ig#sclient=psy&hl=en&rls=ig&biw=599&bih=389&site=webhp&source=hp&q=adjective+as+sentence+object&aq=&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=c4c796b09a129ab4
     
  8. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    According to my reference grammar the subject is the entire noun phrase: "The girl's vitality and humor". "Vitality and humor" is the head of the noun phrase, so it's the bit that governs conjugation of the verb, but it's only part of the subject.
     
  9. Vespers

    Vespers New Member

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    I read this, and at first I wanted to claim just "Vitality" and "Humor" were the subjects, with the rest of the relating words merely detailing the subject, but upon research, as I see others have already done, it is indeed the entire phrase "The girl's vitality and humor".
     
  10. Cloudless

    Cloudless New Member

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    digitig nailed it more times than he needed to.
    All hail................. :)
     
  11. Cain

    Cain Member

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    Yeah, that was impressive.

    Plus kudos to Amanda who perfectly nailed it immediately in post 2!

    Most educational thread I've read in a while...
     
  12. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, it's Amanda who deserves the credit. I was just riding shotgun.
     
  13. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ok, so i'm going by grammar rules i was taught... if there are 'new grammar' rules governing this matter [just as there was 'new math' a way back] i'm not aware of them...

    can anyone provide a link to such a rule, please?... if already done a page or 2 back, please point me in the right direction... thanks!
     
  14. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    I referred to the Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, which was a set text on the grammar module of my recent English Language degree so I think it's a reasonable authority, but the rules are the same as I was taught at school in the 1960s. Wikipedia agrees that the subject is a noun phrase, not just the head of the noun phrase, and for instance identifies the subject in "His constant hammering was very annoying" as "His constant hammering", not just "hammering", which I think is a direct parallel to "The girl's humor and vitality."
     
  15. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ah, so... the 60's, however, were 2 decades later than when i was getting '100%' grades [they didn't use letter grades then, either] for diagramming sentences!
     
  16. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    So it might be a new-fangled grammar, then! Do you have any references for the subject being the head of the noun phrase rather than the entire phrase? I'd be interested in following up such a change, and I'm a reader at the British Library so I should be able to follow up any references you have.
     
  17. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    heck, no!... sorry, but i'm almost 3/4 of a century away from my grammar school years and certainly don't have any of my schoolbooks from back then...
     

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