8
What is unusual about Angkor Wat?
What is the real subject of this sentence?
8
What is unusual about Angkor Wat?
What is the real subject of this sentence?
6
Consider the following sentences:
These sentences all start with noun phrases. These particular noun phrases all have something in common. They all have a preposition phrase following the noun:
Now these sentences are maybe a little bit clunky. Where these noun phrases are Subject, for instance, the preposition phrases mean that the head noun in the noun phrase is quite a long way away from the verb.
Lets look at the Subjects of these sentences:
In the first two sentences, the noun phrases are Direct Objects of the verbs like and meet:
Now one thing that tends to happen to preposition phrases inside noun phrases like these, is that they can break away from the noun phrase and appear at the end of the clause. This is sometimes called postposing. Sometimes writers call it extraposition from noun phrase movement. So in the following sentences part of the Subject noun phrase has broken off and moved to the end of the sentence:
This doesn't only happen with Subject noun phrases. We can do it with the first two examples where the preposition phrases are part of a Direct Object:
The Original Poster's example
What is unusual about Angkor Wat?
This sentence is a non-canonical version (one where the normal order of the phrases has been changed) of this sentence:
The Subject of the sentence is in brackets below:
In the Original Poster's version of the sentence, part of the Subject has been moved to the end of the sentence:
Note: The Italy example is from this book here
3I am baffled at your analysis that in "the news came from Italy" the highlighted portion is [part of] the subject. Would it be the same with "the news came yesterday"? – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T16:14:58.547
@VictorBazarov Yes, I shouldn't have used the verb come there. Quite right. It's too ambiguous. Let me change change that ... – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-11-05T16:24:18.533
"is" is intransitive. – Nihilist_Frost – 2015-11-05T16:58:12.643
3
Syntactically every sentence has a complete subject and complete predicate.
The complete subject of the sentence in question is what about Angkor Wat.
It would be nice to see more examples with complete/incomplete subjects, predicates, etc. Do you propose to bundle objects into predicates, for instance? – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T15:59:18.173
Ah, snap!! You just beat me to it! – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-11-05T16:06:03.997
No, @Araucaria, I didn't. I just thought you wouldn't make an answer. – Lucian Sava – 2015-11-05T16:51:54.033
I wasn't sure what the answer was ... :) – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-11-05T20:07:46.733
1I see. BTW: you dotted the i's and crossed the t's, @Araucaria.:) – Lucian Sava – 2015-11-05T20:25:11.393
0
"What".
"is" is a form of "be", an intransitive verb, which only takes a subject. i.e. the "what" that "is" unusual about Angkor Wat.
Remember that "what" can also serve as an interrogative pronoun.
@Araucaria, Now if you say "That man came that you saw yesterday" what is "that you saw yesterday"? -- that is called a relative clause. – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T14:54:04.543
1If I answer that question as (1) Angkor Wat is unusual in that it faces west and it is inspired by 12th Century Hinduism. (2)Facing west and being inspired by 12th Century Hinduism are unusual about Angkor Wat", which is grammatically correct? – yethu – 2015-11-05T15:07:52.143
@yethu, (1) is easier on the reader, and you can omit the second "it". In (2) I'd change "are unusual" to "is what's unusual". – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T15:14:24.310
According to your comments, "Angkor Wat" is the subject of the question, isn't it? – yethu – 2015-11-05T15:46:01.687
@yethu, maybe, maybe not. We're still waiting for a clear answer... :-) – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T15:58:05.680
It seems to be a miswording. Will attempt to fix or else I will delete the whole answer. – Nihilist_Frost – 2015-11-05T16:31:51.397
What is the subject. – Victor Bazarov – 2015-11-05T14:04:48.380
2@VictorBazarov No, it's not!!! – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-11-05T14:11:59.057
@Araucaria Explain... what do you think is the subject? – Nihilist_Frost – 2015-11-05T14:17:55.760
@Araucaria Waiting for your answer :) Is it "Angkor Wat"? Pardon :( – Usernew – 2015-11-05T14:46:32.583
1@Usernew Have given it my best shot :) – Araucaria - Not here any more. – 2015-11-05T16:04:21.873