In English, subject and predicate agreement is very important. Without knowing its principles, you will not be able to construct even a simple sentence. Let's find out how to correctly agree the predicate with the subject in English.
If the subject of a sentence consists of two or more nouns (pronouns) joined by a conjunction and, the plural verb should be used. Example:
- He and his colleagues are in the cinema.
However, if two or more nouns (pronouns) that make up the subject are connected in a sentence by conjunctions or or nor, the verb referring to them must be used in the singular. Examples:
- My mother or sister is going to cook a dinner.
If a compound subject consists of a noun (pronoun) in the plural and singular, and they are connected by conjunctions or or nor, the verb of the predicate should be consistent with that part of the subject that is in the sentence closer to the verb.
Examples:
- Neither the coach nor the players know the score.
- Neither the players nor the coachknows the score.
Doesn't is a shortened form of does not and is used with a singular subject. Don't is an abbreviation don't and suits plural subjects. The exception to this rule is the 1st and 2nd person pronouns I And you as the subject. Should be used with them don't. Examples:
- She doesn't play football.
- They don't like coffee.
- I don't like cooking.
- You don't play chess
The verb must agree with the subject, and not with another noun (pronoun) that may appear between them in the sentence. Examples:
- One of the chickens was ill.
- The woman with all her children stays at the bus stop.
- The people who trusts the president are many.
Pronouns in English each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody, anybody, anyone, nobody, someone, somebody And no one have a singular number and require a singular verb, respectively. Examples:
- Everyone likes apples.
- Neither is correct.
- Nobody in the team wants to give up.
- Each of these apricots on the table is ripe.
Nouns like civics, mathematics, dollars, news, meats require the use of a singular predicate verb. Examples:
Note: noun dollars in the sense of a sum of money is used with a singular verb. If we are talking about currency in general, then the verb will be in the plural.- In my opinion, mathematics is the most important science.
- Yesterday the news was at seven.
- One hundred dollars is a lot of money.
- Dollars are convertible throughout the world.
Nouns like scissors, shears, tweezers, trousers require a plural form of the verb (since they all consist of two parts). Examples:
- These trousers are stylish.
- Your scissors are keen.
Expressions like such as with, together with, including, accompanied by, in addition to, as well do not change the number of the subject, as well as the predicate verb. Examples:
- My brother, accompanied by his friends, is playing football
- All cats, including small kittens, have strong claws.
In sentences that begin with phrases there is or there are, the subject comes after the predicate verb, however, they still agree. Examples:
- There are many students.
- There is a student.
Collective nouns, which imply more than one person, are nevertheless singular and are used with a singular verb. Examples:
- Today the team demonstrates outstanding performance.
- His family was pretty big.
- The crew is ready for departure.
The topic of the article is very important, because the rules for agreeing the subject and predicate are applicable in almost every sentence.
Now, having replenished your knowledge base, you can better prepare for, for example,
The subject of English declarative sentences usually comes before the predicate. The subject is expressed:
- nouns
Themanis 40 – A man is 40 years old
ThestudentsstudyEnglish – Students take English
- pronouns
Shereadsveryquickly – She reads very quickly
My room is large, yours is larger – Myroomgreat, Ayoursmoremore
Thiswas wonderful – This iswaswonderful
Everybodyhas read it - ThisreadAll
Whoknowsthisstory? – Who knows this story?
- numerals
60 isanumeral – 60 is a number
The 1stwas my friend – Firstwasminefriend
- infinitives
Towalkisuseful – Walking is useful
- gerunds
Walkingisuseful – Walking is useful
- subordinate clauses
Whocandoitisnotknown - It is not known who can do it
Formal subject
The man and the womanwalked over to the telephone – ManAndwomancame upTophone
Either the children or the adults are cleaning the table – Tablewashchildrenoradults
Nina and Christopherhave donated money to charity – NinaAndChristopherdonatedmoneyoncharity
Compound subject with or/nor consistent with the last component. This morphological exception is made for euphony.
The twins or Margery iscoming on the trip to Seattle – BtripVSeattlewill gotwinsorMargery
Complex subject
English impersonal verbs can form complexes as nominal constructions. Their meaning is close to the connection between the main members, and they act as integral parts of a sentence. The non-prepositional infinitive or participial complexes in the function of the subject are noteworthy.
A complex subject is formed around:
- verbs of perception
(see, hear, feel, watch, notice, observe)
Hewasheardaskingthisquestion – Have you heard him ask this question?
- thinking verbs
(type know, think, consider, believe, suppose, expect, find+ infinitive)
Some such complexes (especially with thinkconsiderfind) can do without verbs.
Hewas supposed to be strong – Hisbelievedstrong
Hewas considered clever - Hisbelievedsmart
- incentive verbs
(type permit, allow, let, force, cause, make, get, order, command+ infinitive)
Hewas allowed to come a little later – To himallowedcomelater
- message verbs
(report,say+ infinitive)
Stylistically formal complex.
The qualityof the residual noise has also been changed and is now said to be not so harsh – LevelresidualnoiseAlsoreducedbefore, HowThey say, moderation
- appearance verbs
(seem, appear, happen, prove, turn out)
He appeared to throw his responsibilities aside when he went to Scotland - Having gone to Scotland, he seemed to throw away his responsibilities
English Joke
“Oh, mamma,” questioned the child, “who’s that?” He pointed to a nun who was passing.
"A Sister of Charity," was the answer.
“Which one,” the boy persisted, “Faith or Hope?”
In speech, we often use sentences like “Spring. It was getting dark. It’s getting colder,” etc. Such sentences are called “impersonal” because the sentence does not indicate the person performing the action, and often the action itself is missing. In Russian everything is simple, but in English with impersonal sentences - impersonal sentences are a little more complicated. English grammar does not allow a sentence without a subject and predicate following one another in a strict order, and we cannot translate a Russian sentence consisting of one word also with one word. It is imperative to come up with a construction that will contain the main members of the sentence. We'll see now how it will look in English.
Impersonal sentence structure
Let's start with a simple one and gradually complicate the impersonal sentence. "Spring. It was getting dark. It's getting colder." As can be seen from the examples, this type of sentence is used to convey natural conditions or weather phenomena. The construction used to translate impersonal sentences is based on English - in the present, past or future tense. As you probably guessed, to be will serve as the missing predicate, and as for the subject, a pronoun will take its place it, which always and in any impersonal sentence will serve as the subject and, accordingly, take its rightful place at the beginning of the sentence. Now let's see what we got.
- Spring – It is spring
- Cold – It is cold
- Warmth – It is warm
- Hot – It is hot
- It was getting dark – It was getting dark
- It was getting cold – It was getting cold
- Winter will come soon - It will be winter soon
- It will be hot in summer - It will be hot in summer
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As can be seen from the above examples, we have created a non-existent formal subject it, and a formal predicate – is, was or will be depending on the tense. By design it is, it was, it will be we will translate into English all sentences that contain the adverb - difficult, perhaps, impossible, easy, late, early, far, close etc. To make it easier for you to understand, we will give a few examples:
- It is difficult for the child to lift the heavy box
- It is impossible to finish this work in a day
- It is difficult for me to breathe - it is difficult for me to breathe
- It's too early to get up now - it is too early to get up
- It’s too late to go for a walk – it is late to go for a walk
To form the interrogative form of an impersonal sentence, the auxiliary verb to be (am, is, are) is placed at the beginning of the sentence, and the negative form is formed using the negative particle not.
- Is it dark out of doors?
- It was not snowing.
Use of impersonal sentences
- We use an impersonal sentence to say what time is it now
:
It’s 11 o’clock now – it is 11 o’clock now
It was half past five – it was half past 4
When I return it will be 10 o’clock already - Impersonal sentences are always used to describe the weather with verbs to rain, to snow, to hail, to drizzle
It often rains in autumn – It often rains in autumn
It’s drizzling, I must take an umbrella – It is drizzling, I must take an umbrella - To note how much time it takes us to complete an action, you’ve probably come across sentences starting with the words “ I need... time to do something, it takes me... time to do something, etc.
" So, to translate such sentences, the construction of an impersonal sentence is also used - It takes…to…:
She needs an hour to get to work – It takes her an hour to get to her work
It will take my mother half a day to bake so many cakes.
- An impersonal sentence is often used to describe actions that require an infinitive, using words such as never, to appear, to seem, to turn out, to happen
It is never late to say “excuse me” - It’s never too late to say “sorry”
It seemed to be late to change anything - It seemed too late to change anything - An impersonal sentence is used to express modality with verbs can, may, must
. In this case, the formal subject is the word one, which is omitted when translated into Russian.
One must not smoke here
One should wash hands before having meals
It is impossible to do all the work at once - One cannot do all the work at once.
That's all about impersonal sentences in English. Try to form several sentences on your own to reinforce the material.
2.1.2 Subject – pronoun.
Pronoun (The Pronoun) is a part of speech that is devoid of its own lexical meaning and is used instead of a noun, adjective, numeral or adverb, without naming an object (phenomenon, etc.), or its characteristic, but only pointing to them (their relationship to others objects, phenomena, etc.)
In English, subject-pronoun and subject-noun are “combined” under the common name “pronouns”. Pronominal nouns include personal pronouns:
I think that" s why he stayed in Congress for so long ;
interrogative:
Who can help you? ;
undefined:
You"ll meet some guy and the two of you will hit it off ;
negative:
She went right back into her story about Bible school, as ifnothing had happened at all. ;
demonstrative or indefinite-indicative:
This was going to be a lot of work.
The subject pronoun is usually omitted in imperative forms. The presence of a pronoun in this case serves the purpose of logical emphasizing and contrasting:
Listen to me, please!
In the case when the subject is unclear and is thought of as an imaginary interlocutor, both Russian and English use the 2nd person indefinite personal pronoun as the subject:
Y ou could tell that only the ones in the front row had a good view of the thing.
Also, when the character is thought of as vague, the pronoun “one” or “they” is used as the subject:
O ne might be interested in him.
T hey say, it would be a fine idea.
2.1.3 Subject-numeral.
Numeral (The Numeral) is an independent part of speech, denoting a quantity or quantitative attribute, the order of an object when counting, answering the question “which?”, “how much?”
The subject is mainly cardinal numbers:
Onlythree channels came in on the television
In addition, in certain cases, ordinal and even fractional numbers can be expressed as subjects.
Thethird was even worse.
2.1.4 Subject-infinitive.
The infinitive (indefinite form of the verb) is an impersonal verbal form that only names an action, without indicating either person or number. The infinitive answers the questions “what to do?”, “what to do?”. The formal sign of the infinitive is the particle “to”, which is sometimes omitted.
The infinitive can also serve as the subject of a sentence. In this role, it always stands at the beginning of the sentence, before the predicate, and can be translated either as an indefinite form of a verb or a noun:
T o talk it over with Mr. Jenkins was the next step.
« T o get married is I want", -she said quietly
2.1.5 Subject-gerund.
A gerund is a non-finite form that expresses the name of an action and has both the properties of a noun and the properties of a verb. There is no corresponding form in Russian. The functions of the gerund are in many ways similar to the functions of the infinitive, which also combines the properties of a noun with the properties of a verb. The gerund, however, has more properties of a noun than the infinitive.
Having the properties of a noun, a gerund can serve as the subject of a sentence:
Helping to others was her greatest pleasure
Ministering wasn't a profession where people made a lot of money.
The above parts of speech are the most common, “actors approved for the role of the subject.” But it should be noted that other parts of speech can also act as the subject. Or rather, any word of any part of speech in any grammatical form can act as a subject, if in a sentence a judgment is made about it as a linguistic unit.
“Wow” was heard from the other side of the street. (interjection)
"To" may be the Preposition and the Particle in the sentence. (particle)
Similar examples can be combined into a group of substantivized words. Substantivized words are words of any part of speech that in a sentence acquire an objective meaning and answer the questions “who?” So what?". Almost any part of speech can be substantivized. And this expands the range of parts of speech that can act as subjects. Thus, it turns out that substantivization is a tool that the subject uses for the purpose of “self-expression.”
2.2 Ways of expressing a “composite” subject.
Complex/compound subjects are subjects expressed in more than one word. And for the subject, as you know, this is a fairly common phenomenon.
2.2.1 Subject is a syntactic complex.
The subject in English can be expressed by whole syntactic complexes with non-finite forms of the verb:
Syntactic complex with infinitive:
Water is known to boil at 100 C.
It was very difficult for him to solve the problem.
He was supposed to be in Denmark.
Syntactic complex with gerund:
His returning home so late will be very unpleasant to his mother.
It"s been a sad time for us, your having been away for so long.
Syntactic complex with participle:
He was seen entering the house.
He was often heard playing the violin until late at night.
2.2.2 Subject-phrase.
A phrase is a combination of two or more significant words, related in meaning and grammatically, which serves to dissect a single concept (object, action).
The subject can be expressed by other types of phrases:
collocations that consist of a noun or
pronouns that are joined by another noun or pronoun. In this case, the predicate is in plural form:
Eric asked me how my "date" went with Jamie Sullivan. ;
quantitative, which include a word with a quantitative meaning (numeral, noun, adverb) and a noun dependent on it (or a substantivized word:
The walk took about ten minutes or so. ;
emphases, which include a pronoun, a noun, a numeral, a superlative adjective, the preposition “of” and a substantivized word:
One of the kids turned around at the sound of our steps. ;
indefiniteness or generality, which consist of an indefinite or negative pronominal noun together with an adjective or participle that defines it:
Ssomething important was on her mind. ;
phraseological units, that is, stable combinations of words:
A pitch battle started on the field.
2.2.3 Subject-sentence.
This does not mean that a particular sentence is singled out entirely as the subject, but the function of the subject for it is determined. First of all, this function is allocated for the subordinate explanatory part, when it “displaces” the subject from the main one.
That's what you really want.
The subject position can also be occupied by direct speech:
“Yes” was what she said to me.
2.3 Formal subject.
English impersonal sentences differ from Russian impersonal sentences in that they always have a subject. However, this subject does not denote any real subject: the elusive content that is contained in the subject (a certain setting, a life situation), seems to dissolve in the content of the predicate and cannot be isolated and considered independently. Such subjects are called impersonal. Or formal. Impersonality in them is expressed not by the absence of a subject (as in Russian impersonal sentences), but by the semantic emptiness of the subject.
In English grammars in sentences like It's necessary or It's useful
it is usually said that the real subject in this case is the infinitive or subordinate clause that follows it, and "it" represents the "empty word" that precedes the subject. This "it" is usually called an "anticipatory" it and is distinguished from the impersonal "it". However, this is hardly true: the “preceding” it is the same impersonal it, which is the only subject in the sentence, and the subordinate clause or infinitive represents a certain clarification, development of the content of the predicate.
Impersonal sentences are used to express:
natural phenomena, weather conditions:
It often rains in winter
It was getting dark;
time, distance, temperature:
It is early morning
It is two miles to lake;
assessments of the situation in sentences with a compound nominal (sometimes verbal) predicate followed by the subject of the sentence, expressed by an infinitive, gerund or subordinate clause:
It was easy to do this
It was clear that he would not come;
with some verbs in the passive voice in phrases corresponding to Russian indefinite personal phrases:
It is said he will come.
Note.
Impersonal sentences with a subject in English arose in relatively recent times. In any case, in ancient texts there are impersonal sentences without a subject of the type “snows”. One might think that the introduction of “it” as a subject is in direct connection with a decrease in the number of verbal forms of person and number and an increase in their homonymy: the habit of using the subject in other cases is also transferred to these cases.
2.4 “Zero” subject.
As you know, English sentences cannot do without a subject. However, in practice we encounter sentences that “avoid” its use. And following the tradition of English devotion and respect for the subject, the idea arises that in such sentences its absence is another form, a way of expressing it.
The subject may be missing from answers to questions or from the narrative of a conversation if the context indicates what the predicate refers to. In this case, it is unusual and gives the speech a special shade of conversational and familiar style. In the imperative mood, the absence of a subject is the norm and therefore is a sign of the imperative mood.
The subject is demonstrative, indicating what the predicate refers to. Therefore, if this indication is present in the context or in the form of a predicate, then there may not be a subject in the sentence. Thus, the absence of a subject is justified in all cases.
The subject usually denotes the subject of the sentence. And there is a subject in every sentence, since predication - the main element of a sentence - always refers to something. It turns out that the subject is absent in those cases when the subject is thought of unclearly, indistinctly. But in any case, it is there. Not always in the forms that we are used to seeing in sentences. Perhaps somewhere in the context, in the predicate. And in such cases, the absence of a subject is another way of expressing it, which we could call a “null” subject. To this it can be objected that the subject - the object of thought - and the subject - as the main member of the sentence - may or may not coincide. BUT! Until a universal, precise definition of the subject is derived, this point of view (about the existence of a “zero” subject) has every right to exist.
Conclusion
This coursework was written with the aim of clarifying and highlighting ways of expressing the subject in modern English. Based on the results of the work, the following conclusions were drawn:
the subject does not have a universal definition;
in English there are no sentences without a subject (except in some cases);
the role of the subject in a sentence is significant, but its status as the main member of the sentence is a controversial issue;
a subject has a wide range of ways of being expressed as a subject;
any word, under certain conditions, has the ability to be the subject;
Syntactic complexes, phrases, and even whole sentences can also act as subjects.
To more fully disclose the problem, the following concepts are used in the work:
simple subject
complex/compound subject,
null subject.
The concept of “zero subject” acts as the author’s hypothesis that this kind of subject is another way of expressing them in language.
Based on the above, we can conclude that the subject is an interesting member of the sentence from a research point of view. And despite the fact that the most basic ways of expressing it have been considered, it is too early to put an end to research in this area. Because the study of ways to express it in its universal definition ends. And this, as we know, is just the beginning, which scientists are still “struggling” over.
List of used literature:
1. Babaytseva L. M., “Russian language. Theory", M., 1992.
2. Vasiliev A., “English: rules of pronunciation and reading, grammar, spoken language”, Art. "Formal subject"
3. Vinogradov V.V., “History of the Russian literary language”, M., 1960.
4. Gogoshidze V.D., “Comparative typology of English and native languages”, Dushanbe, 1985
5. Golovin B. N., “Introduction to linguistics”, M., 1977
6. Katsman N. L., Pokrovskaya M. “History of the Latin language”, 1987
7. Kachalova K.N., E.E.Izrailevich., “Practical grammar of the English language”, M., 2008
8. Kibrik A. “Strategies for organizing the basic structure of a sentence and the integral typology of languages”, Bulletin of Moscow State University, series “Philology”, 1995, No. 3.
9. Keenan E.L., “Towards a universal definition of the subject.” “New in foreign linguistics”, issue 11. Moscow, 1982
10. Lee C. N., Thompson S. A., “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.” “New in foreign linguistics”, issue 11. M., 1982
11. Malovitsky L. Ya., “Russian language. Pronoun", "Printhouse". M., 2003.
12. Nikolenkova N. V., “The main members of a two-part sentence. Ways of expressing subject and predicate."
13. Nunen M, “On subject and topics”, “New in foreign linguistics”, 1982
14. Smirnitsky A. I. “Syntax of the English language”, M., 1957
15. Hornby A., “Constructions and turns of English,” M, 1990
16. Chafe W, “Data, contrastivity, definiteness, subject, topics and point of view,” “New in Foreign Linguistics.” M., 1982
17. Nicholas Sparks, “A Walk to Remember”, 1999
18. “Structural and semantic features of the subject in modern Tajik and English languages”
19. "Subject"
20. "Impersonal proposals."
21. English courses.
22. Rosenthal D.E. "Dictionary of linguistic terms"
23. Rosenthal D. E., Telenkova M. A. “Dictionary-reference book of linguistic terms”, 1976.
24. Yartseva V.N., “Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary”, M., 1990
If some languages can ignore the subject of a sentence and sometimes even freely do without it, then in English this is unacceptable. The English language does not allow itself such indifference to such an important part of the sentence, and the subject enjoys attention and authority. This is evidenced by the avoidance of constructing English sentences without a subject. And even in the case of impersonal sentences, the English language assigns an impersonal subject to such sentences.
Who knows, it is quite possible that such importance of the subject is due to the insufficiently clear design of the English verb, which by its form cannot always clearly indicate the subject. But I would like to believe that this is not the only reason why the subject in English has recognition and respect in the grammatical arena.
So what do we mean by subject? What are his signs? And what does it do?
In simpler terms, the subject can be characterized as a member of a sentence that answers the questions Who? - Who? and What? - What? It mostly denotes a person or object, less often a process, action and state. It is also characterized by the absence of a preposition (before the subject) and place in the sentence (before the predicate).
This concerns the obvious signs of the subject. Moving on to larger theories, let us turn to the research of A.I. Smirnitsky. According to the definition given by A.I. Smirnitsky, “the subject is a word (or group of words) that denotes the subject.” Since the subject is defined as the object of thought in relation to which the predicate is thought, the subject is simultaneously a member of the sentence indicating what the statement made in the predicate refers to. Therefore, although predication is not expressed in the subject, it, along with the predicate, is the main member of the sentence.
Moreover, since the subject indicates what the predicate and the predication expressed in the predicate refer to, the predicate itself turns out to be subordinate to the subject. The subject thus represents the structural center of the sentence, which grammatically and structurally dominates the predicate. While the predicate depends on the subject formally, the subject does not depend on either the predicate or any other member of the sentence.
So, for example, in the sentence
I suppose you"ve heard of him.
all words except I, depend on the predicate suppose. But suppose, in turn, is subordinated to the subject I. This becomes clear if we replace the pronoun I some other third person singular pronoun. In this case, the form of the predicate will also change. The same can be observed in sentences such as
He wasn't there for me growing up. He's my father. I was one of the last to arrive and so on.
To this we must add that the central role of the subject in the sentence is indicated in this case by its design in the nominative case, which is the most independent designation of a person or object (from some other person, object or action). In this regard, cases of substantivization or “objectification” of personal pronouns are of interest, in which the nominative case form is chosen from two forms of the pronoun:
Is it a he or a she?
Based on the above understanding of the subject as the grammatical center of the sentence, subordinating the predicate to itself, one could seem to assume that without a subject a sentence cannot exist. However, practice convinces us that sentences without a subject are also possible. For example,
Help me, please! Thanks, Mom!
This apparent contradiction can be explained as follows. The fact is that the subject has a demonstrative character, indicating what the predicate refers to. Therefore, if this indication is in the form of a predicate or is given by the context, then there may not be a subject in the sentence. Nevertheless, the sentence in this case remains quite complete without a subject. Such cases occur especially often in sentences where there is a 2nd person.
So, for example, in Latin the absence of a subject is almost the norm in the 1st and 2nd person singular:
dico, dicis.
The subject may often be absent in other languages, for example, in Russian:
I know. Do you hear?
In similar sentences, the very form of the verb denoting the predicate contains a clear indication of the object.
As mentioned above, the absence of a subject in English has become the norm in the form of the imperative mood. Because in this case, the indication, which is a function of the subject, is given both by the form of the verb and by the situation itself. But we must admit that in English, in the imperative mood, the indication of the subject is not given clearly enough. The absence of a subject here has a certain significance, since it acts as a sign of the imperative mood. The indication of the subject in this case is given by the situation itself: the content of the imperative mood can be an order, a request, which can only relate to the one to whom they are addressed. Consequently, the situation itself indicates the 2nd person, and the need for a subject disappears.
The subject may also be missing from answers to questions or from the narrative in spoken language if the context indicates what the predicate refers to. For example,
Landon, did that yesterday? Will there today?
The verb form itself is chosen here based on a specific subject, which is clear from the context or situation. While in the imperative mood the absence of a subject is the norm, in this case it is unusual and gives the speech a special touch of conversational-familiar style.
In the absence of a subject, the predicate becomes the constructive center of the sentence. It becomes the leading and independent member of the proposal. So, for example, in English
Thank you! They say.
There is no subject, and the center of the construction is the predicate. But when this fuzzy subject is thought of as an imaginary interlocutor, both Russian and English use the 2nd person indefinite personal pronoun as the subject. For example,
You can never say what this girl will do the next minute.
You never know what this girl will do next minute.
The speaker himself can act as an indication in similar sentences.
The same content can be formatted grammatically differently. So, in some cases the subject is presented in the sentence as a subject, in others the subject is outside the sentence. However, although there may not be a subject in a sentence, there is always a subject, since predication always refers to something. Thus, it is extremely important to distinguish between the subject as the main member of the grammatical structure and the subject - the object of thought to which the content of the predication refers. They may or may not coincide, but it is necessary to be able to distinguish them in order to understand all the diversity of sentence structure, all the subtle movements of thought in language. Different ways of designating a subject make it possible to express different shades of thought in language. Let's compare the following sentences.
It rains. He reads.
Both sentences are identical in grammatical design, and in design they are both personal sentences: both have a subject. In terms of content, they are completely different. It rains denotes a process without the participation of any actor (person); in a sentence He reads the action of a very specific person is indicated. It rains semantically impersonal, since semantics it essentially impersonal.
As discussed above, in addition to the difference between the grammatical subject and the subject, it is necessary to distinguish between the grammatical subject and the designation of the agent. The distinction between subject and agent is especially important for a correct understanding of active and passive constructions.
Let's compare two sentences:
The hunter killed the wolf. The wolf was killed by the hunter.
In active design the hunter is the subject, since it is the grammatical center of the structure and the predicate is subordinate to it. In a passive construction, on the contrary, the subject is the wolf, since it is here that the grammatical center of the sentence subordinates the predicate. Thus, in an active construction the grammatical center coincides with the name of the object that performs the action with the name of the actor, while in the passive construction the grammatical center coincides not with the name of the actor, but with the name of the object to which the action is directed.
It must be said that in the English language there are wide possibilities for using words as subjects that denote objects that are in a wide variety of relationships with the action. For example:
He was laughing at. The boy was given a book. The bed was not slept in.