Features of the Subject in English 1.There must always be a subject; 2.The subject is the theme of the sentence that the verb structure describes; 3.The subject has grammatical control; 4.The subject must be a noun or a noun structure
Features of the Subject in English ◼ 1. There must always be a subject; ◼ 2. The subject is the theme of the sentence that the verb structure describes; ◼ 3. The subject has grammatical control; ◼ 4. The subject must be a noun or a noun structure
Chinese:Topic-Comment话题：评说 (Sapir) ■ Topic is the theme of a sentence Comment is narration about the theme
Chinese: Topic-Comment话题:评说 (Sapir) ◼ Topic is the theme of a sentence. ◼ Comment is narration about the theme
Features of the Subject in Chinese 1.The subject is not essential; 2.The subject has no grammatical control over the whole sentence; 3.There can be more than one subject; 4.The subject can be a noun,verb, adjective or any such structures
Features of the Subject in Chinese ◼ 1. The subject is not essential; ◼ 2. The subject has no grammatical control over the whole sentence; ◼ 3. There can be more than one subject; ◼ 4. The subject can be a noun, verb, adjective or any such structures
Difficulties with Chinese Subjects (SVO?): ■1)宾踞句首 ■2)主谓谓语句 ■3)宾踞动前 ■4)主状不分 ■可以没有主语，也可以有多个主语，除 名词以外，可以由动词，形容词，副词， 介词短语，主谓结构担当主语
Difficulties with Chinese Subjects (SVO?): ◼ 1）宾踞句首 ◼ 2）主谓谓语句 ◼ 3）宾踞动前 ◼ 4）主状不分 ◼ ∴可以没有主语，也可以有多个主语，除 名词以外，可以由动词，形容词，副词， 介词短语，主谓结构担当主语
Subject-prominent vs.Topic- prominent A subject-prominent language (eg.English) is a language in which the grammatical units of subject and predicate(SV)are basic to the structure of sentences and in which sentences usually have subject-predicate structure. A topic-prominent language (eg.Chinese) is one in which the information units of topic and comment are basic to the structure of sentence
Subject-prominent vs. Topicprominent ◼ A subject-prominent language (eg. English) is a language in which the grammatical units of subject and predicate (SV) are basic to the structure of sentences and in which sentences usually have subject-predicate structure. ◼ A topic-prominent language (eg. Chinese) is one in which the information units of topic and comment are basic to the structure of sentence