Edited by Mike Hannay and Gerard J. Steen
[Studies in Language Companion Series 83] 2007
► pp. 141–158
Linguistic theories typically have a static, competence-based view of the notion Subject. In this view speakers choose their Subjects freely from the relevant constituents of a clause, typically the arguments of the main predicate. However, when one looks at what speakers actually do, it becomes clear that the choice is determined to a high degree on the basis of the pragmatic and semantic features of the candidate constituents. Apart from roles such as Agency and Topicality, the major determining factor appears to be a possibly language specific mix of features such as person, animacy, and definiteness. A multifunctional approach to Subject choice seems to work even for English, a language which is thought to have grammaticalized Subject to a large extent.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.