Курсовая работа: Subject: ways of expressing the sentence

There was a little pause. (Voynich)

(there – an introductory particle; was – a simple verbal predicate; a pause – the subject; little – an attribute)

…there is the rustle of branches in the morning breeze;

…there is the music of a sunny shower against the window; (Gissing)

There came a laugh, high, gay sweet. (Galsworthy) r

…there came a scent of lime-blossom. (Galsworthy)

There soon appeared, pausing in the dark doorway as he entered, a hale, grey-haired old man. (Dickens) [11, 341]

2. Chapter Two. Ways of Expressing Subject in Fiction

Practical part of the given project, presented in Chapter Two, brings to light subject features, investigated from theoretical point of view in Chapter One, in separate examples, drawn from fiction works. Opposing works of American and British English fiction, the paper is aimed at distinguishing subject peculiarities in both fiction sides. Thus, the investigated works are ‘The Book of Grotesque’ by Sherwood Anderson, ‘The Magic Barrel’ by Bernard Malamud, ‘The Last Leaf’, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O. Henry concerning American writers and ‘The Man with the Scar’, ‘The Door of Opportunity’, ‘A Friend in Need’ by W. S. Maugham for British authors.

2.1 Ways of Expressing Subject in British Fiction

‘The greatest English playwright, novelist and short story writer, considered one of the most popular writers of his era, and reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W. Somerset Maugham], William Somerset Maugham gives preference mainly to the personal pronouns in the role of the subject. All the examined works of the writer within the project keep the tendency of the presenting the personal pronouns as the subject.

‘We draw our conclusions from the shape of the jaw, the look in the eyes, the contour of the mouth.’ [26, 355]

‘When you made him that offer of a job, did you know he’d be drowned?’ [26, 360]

‘Well, I hadn’t got a vacancy in my office at the moment.’ [26, 360]

‘She gave him a long searching look.’ [25, 501]

‘In your place I should never have been able to resist the temptation to take my eight cops and have a whack at the blighters myself.’ [25, 503]

‘She is waiting at the prison door.’ [27, 229]

The second preferable part of speech in the subject role is a noun in the nominal case.

‘Women thought a lot of him.’ [26, 357]

‘The blood spurted from the cut vein and dyed his shirt.’ [27, 230]

‘This scar spoke of a terrible wound and I wondered whether it had been caused by a sabre or by a fragment of shell.’ [27, 228]

‘But Alban had already a London look.’ [25, 495]

‘Anne quickly made friends with the shy, pretty native woman and soon was playing happily with the children.’ [25, 496]

Other parts of speech in the Subject position are surely kept but in much less frequent periodicity.

‘That was how you thought a poet should look.’ [25, 515] where ‘that’ is a demonstrative pronoun in the Subject role.

‘Two or three shouted back in answer.’ [25, 525] where ‘two’ and ‘three’ are cardinal numerals occupying Subject position in the sentence.

‘The worst of it was that Anne knew how low an opinion Alban had of the Governor’s parts.’ [25, 514] where ‘the worst of it’ is construction carrying Subject function in the sentence.

‘How can anyone be so shameless?’ [25, 532] where ‘anyone’ is indefinite pronoun in the Subject role.

‘Nothing that concerns me was at stake.’ [25, 530] where ‘nothing’ is a negative pronoun carrying the Subject function.