CHAPTER XI

SUBJECT AND PREDICATE

A. THE SUBJECT

     123.   Every declarative sentence must of course be an assertion about something. Whenever we make a statement, we say that something is or does so and so.

EXERCISE 103

     124.   The part of the sentence that signifies1 what we speak of is called the subject.2 And so in the sentence —
Bees hum.
we speak of bees, and the word bees is the subject.

EXERCISE 104.

     125.   In the following sentences the same statement is made about four different things : —
Butterfliesfind nectar in flowers.
Honeybeesfind nectar in flowers.
Humming birdsfind nectar in flowers.
Burly bumblebeesfind nectar in flowers.
     Read the subject of each one, and tell how many words are used in forming it.

EXERCISE 105.

     126.   The Subject refers to the thing about which something is said.

B. THE PREDICATE

     127.   In every declarative sentence something is said about one thing or another.

EXERCISE 106.

     128.   The part that states, declares, or asserts, is called the predicate.3 And so in the sentence —
Frogs croak.
the word croak is the predicate, because it refers to what we are saying about frogs.

EXERCISE 107.

     129.   In the following sentences four different statements are made about the same thing: —
Icebergsmelt slowly.
Icebergscome from the polar regions.
Icebergsdrift with the polar currents.
Icebergsare very dangerous to shipping.
     Melt slowly in the first is the predicate, because it refers to what is asserted of icebergs.
     Read the predicate of the other three sentences, and observe that they consist of several words.

EXERCISE 108.

     130.   The Predicate refers to what is being said about something.

C. SUBJECT AND PREDICATE COMBINED

     131.   We have found that every declarative sentence has two necessary parts, — the subject, referring to the thing about which the assertion is being made, and the predicate, referring to what is being asserted of the subject.
     Two words therefore may make a declarative sentence.
     Interrogative and imperative sentences might be divided in the same way, but we study declarative sentences first because they are easier and more common.4

EXERCISE 109.

EXERCISE 110.

     132.   We generally require more than one word to show what we wish to speak of. And so we may wish to say that —
Trees grow.
meaning trees in general; but if we wish to speak more definitely, we say, —
Those trees |grow, or
Those tall trees |grow, or
Those tall trees with thick arching branches |grow.
     So, too, generally more than one word is needed to express what we wish to say about anything. And so we may wish to say —
The trees| grow, or
The trees| grow rapidly, or
The trees| grow rapidly this year, or
The trees| grow rapidly this year without special care.
     Hence the subject and the predicate may each consist of several words.5

EXERCISE 111.

EXERCISE 112.

D. ESSENTIAL SUBJECT AND PREDICATE

     133.   If we think about the sentences we use, we see that the subject part is very different from the predicate part.

EXERCISE 113.

     134.   Some of our words, as —
John, eagles, dewdrops, courage, childhood,
are names of things, and, like him, I, you, etc., they cannot be used to state or assert. But we see at once that asserting words, like —
catches, soar, glisten, strengthens, hurries,
are very different, and that we do not use them as subjects.6

EXERCISE 114.

     135.   The complete subject of a sentence must always contain one word that serves as a name for what we speak of. The most of such words are called nouns. So the complete predicate must always contain an assertive word called a verb.
     These are the necessary or essential parts of every subject and predicate, no matter how long they happen to be.
     And so, in the sentence —
The white snow | falls upon the fields,
the complete subject is — The white snow; but of these three words the necessary or essential one is snow, for it names what we speak of more than either of the other words does. We call it the essential subject.
     So in the complete predicate, falls upon the fields, the essential word is falls; for it is the least that will make an assertion, and there would be no assertion without it. And so it is the essential predicate.

EXERCISE 115.

EXERCISE 116.

EXERCISE 117.

EXERCISE 118.

The white snow | falls upon the fields.
     The Reed & Kellogg method of diagramming put the essential subject and essential predicate on a bold line with a vertical line dividing them, thus:
Reed & Kellogg Diagram

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