Is "being chosen" the subject here?

The verb

In this sentence, is being a participle combining with the verb chosen to construct a gerund phrase, a verb participle that may function as a subject noun phrase?

Yes, exactly. Notice that "however" is set off (that is, surrounded) by commas, which means it's parenthetical (senses 2 and 3) and can safely be ignored when determining the basic structure of the sentence. With that in mind, and given that "chosen" is part of the subject, you are again correct in the comment below: In the sentence in question,

Being chosen, however, is probably not enough.

"Is" is the verb.

English sentences present some tricky problems, but analyzing them gets easier with practice. You've done a good job with this one.

The part after the verb

Now I'd like to answer your further question in the same comment below asking what the object of the sentence is.

This is another slightly tricky concept. The verb "to be" ("is" in this case) is what's called a "linking verb." What this means is that the subject is linked by the verb to something else that comes after the verb. The something else that it's linked to is called the subject complement.

If you are something, the thing that you are isn't really receiving any action by you. You've merely been renamed or described. This is in contrast to an action verb like "to hit." In the sentence "You hit a ball.", the ball is receiving your action, which is why the ball is called a direct object. A subject complement can be either a noun or pronoun, as in

"This car is a sedan."

or an adjective, as in

"This car is fast."

and it comes in exactly the same place in the sentence that a direct object would occupy. If you look up "enough" in the dictionary, you'll discover that it acts as a pronoun in this case (thank you, Man_From_India). So "enough" is the subject complement.

The comment below stating that the sentence doesn't need an object is correct. It doesn't need a subject complement either, but it does have one. Therefore the sentence without modifiers is

Being chosen is enough.

The main point to realize is that what follows the verb can't be an object, because the verb "is" is a linking verb.

You might be thinking, "Who cares what you call the thing after the verb, whether it's an 'object' or a 'subject complement'?" This can be especially important when the subject complement is a pronoun, because personal pronouns have two cases, subjective and objective. For example,

"The professor taught her."

is a correct sentence, but

"The professor is her."

is not correct. Instead, it's correct to say

"The professor is she."

because "she" is the subjective case, just as you'd say

"She is the professor."

It should be pointed out, as Araucaria does below, that many native speakers would be more comfortable with the sentence, "The professor is her." However, upon answering the telephone, when asked "May I speak to <name>?", the response "This is she" is widely used.

(But what about the "probably not," you ask? This phrase could be analyzed a few different ways, and I don't feel qualified to write authoritatively about it. Some helpful partial answers can be found here, where I continued this line of inquiry.)

Jason Melançon

Posted 2015-05-28T01:15:34.260

Reputation: 1 117

I may guess, maybe, is may seem a verb. Maybe being chosen seems a gerund phrase, a subject noun phrase, maybe is may seem this verb. I may not get where an object may seem. Maybe there may seem no object and this may seem maybe not a complete sentence? – saySay – 2015-05-28T02:40:37.220

Please don't put questions in your answers, rhetorical or otherwise. – Brian Hitchcock – 2015-05-28T08:01:26.850

@saySay: you guess correctly that "is" is the verb. There is no "object"; there does not need to be an object to make this a complete sentence. btw: you overuse "may seem". Instead, try "is", "seem to be" or "be". Thus: --> Maybe "is" is the verb. "Being chosen" seems to be a gerund phrase, a subject noun phrase. I don't get where there's an object—there doesn't seem to be one, so perhaps this is not a complete sentence. <-- – Brian Hitchcock – 2015-05-28T08:13:08.183

I may not get subjunctive cases. So Being chosen is gets dictated a complete sentence? And I guess is, a copulative (linking[?]) verb requests no argument after it, no object? So, may it not request anything after it and a subject complement requests a noun or adjective, what may you dictate a grammatical function of probably not enough? It may not seem a subject complement, (not an adjective or noun), (three adverbs in a series[?]). May you dictate it mostly a complement, not a subject complement? – saySay – 2015-05-29T01:37:18.403

@snailboat please help here. Being chosen is enough. In this sentence enough is a pronoun and a subject complement. But when there is a not before enough what parts of speech is it? Being chosen is not enough., what is the parts of speech of enough in this sentence? Sometimes I feel not enough is an adverb phrase, but then I see that it's a complement to the subject. Even in that negative sentence enough is a pronoun, why not before a pronoun? :O So getting confused. Help needed! – Man_From_India – 2015-05-29T05:05:45.157

@Man_From_India Thank you so much for pointing out that enough is a pronoun in this case. I'd never heard of that possibility before. Sorry about that. Color me embarrassed and enlightened. Rewriting answer now, including "probably not" in the analysis. – Jason Melançon – 2015-05-29T10:15:35.773

@JasonMelançon Nice post. But "her" and not "she" is the preferred pronoun for native speakers for complements of the verb, including BE :) – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-05-29T13:51:14.370

@Araucaria Enough is a pronoun in Being chosen is enough., but if the sentence is negative like this - Being chosen is not enough - will enough still be a pronoun? Not before a pronoun? :O so here I am confused. Anyone please help. – Man_From_India – 2015-05-29T16:54:11.340

@Man_From_India I had to ask elsewhere myself, and got some interesting answers.

– Jason Melançon – 2015-05-29T21:03:56.617

(I think I aim to get some information.) So Being chosen, however, is probably not enough. gets discerned a complete sentence? And Being chosen is may not get discerned a complete sentence? And is seems a verb here, a copulative (copular[?]) verb that requests an argument, an object? I guess that may dictate that is gets discerned transitive? And an object of is seems probably not enough or, mostly enough? May it seem mostly enough I guess I mostly get it. I may not get a grammatical function of probably not. – saySay – 2015-05-30T00:10:08.310

@JasonMelançon Thank you for sharing this link. Oh going through that link, I remember. In CGEL there is a term Fused Determiner Head (snailboat first pointed it out to me, I asked her similar question once). And this explains. Being chosen is [not enough (thing)] This "not enough (thing)" is an NP, "enough" is a determiner, and the adverb not is modifying the determiner "enough". You can look for Fused determiner head for further reading :-) And, of course, in OP's original quoted sentence "probably not enough" is a subject complement. – Man_From_India – 2015-05-30T03:07:41.633

Are you asking if "being" is the subject here? It is not. Neither 'being' nor 'chosen' are finite verb forms - I don't think that such forms take a subject. But a sentence is "a complete unit of meaning". I would call this a non-finite clause, which can be only a subordinate clause, not a main or an independent one. – Lucky – 2015-05-28T02:21:18.337

1@Lucky Yes, but non-finite clauses can be subjects! – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-05-29T13:47:50.190

1@Araucaria quite right. I (mis)understood that the OP was asking whether "being" is the subject of "being chosen", I didn't get that the question refers to the role of "being chosen" as a whole (I posted before the question was edited). – Lucky – 2015-05-29T14:07:01.177