A verb, we have seen, functions as head of a VP, which prototypically enters into construction with a subject to form a clause. In this chapter we will deal with these two layers of structure: the VP and the clause. As both are headed, immediately or ultimately, by the verb, it is convenient to take the two together – and for simplicity we will subsume both under the heading of clause structure; indeed, as we shall see towards the end of the chapter, it is arguable that we need more than two layers of structure with the verb as ultimate head. We will confine our attention, apart from the occasional aside, to kernel clauses.

Subject and predicate

The first division we make in the analysis of kernel clauses, then, is into subject and predicate. Thus in an elementary example like

(1) Your father washed the car again

your father functions as the subject of the clause and washed the car again as the predicate.

We will initially consider the subject function at the language-particular level: its general definition will be discussed in §4, along with that of the object and predicative. In English the subject is distinguished grammatically from other functions in the clause by a whole cluster of properties, most notably the following:

(a) Form class. The prototypical subject is an NP: there is no predicate that cannot take an NP as subject.