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nsubj: nominal subject

A nominal subject (nsubj) is a nominal which is the syntactic subject and the proto-agent of a clause. That is, it is in the position that passes typical grammatical test for subjecthood, and this argument is the more agentive, the do-er, or the proto-agent of the clause. (See csubj for when the subject is clausal. See nsubjpass and csubjpass for when the subject is not the proto-agent argument due to valence changing operations.) This nominal may be headed by a noun, or it may be a pronoun or relative pronoun, or in ellipsis contexts, other things such as an adjective.

The nsubj role is only applied to semantic arguments of a predicate. When there is an empty argument in a grammatical subject position (sometimes called a pleonastic or expletive), it is labeled as expl. If there is then a displaced subject in the clause, as in the English existential there construction, it will be labeled as nsubj. The governor of the nsubj relation might not always be a verb: when the verb is a copular verb, the root of the clause is the complement of the copular verb, which can be an adjective or noun, including a noun marked by a preposition, as in the examples below.

In English, the nsubj normally precedes the predicate that it depends on, but this need not be the case, both for the displaced subjects of expletive constructions and in other cases of stylistic inversion, such as the example headed by the predicate come below.

Clinton defeated Dole
nsubj(defeated, Clinton)
The car is red .
nsubj(red, car)
Sue is a true patriot .
nsubj(patriot, Sue)
We are in the barn .
nsubj(barn, We)
Agatha is in trouble .
nsubj(trouble, Agatha)
There is a ghost in the room .
expl(is, There)
nsubj(is, ghost)
These links present the many viewpoints that existed .
acl:relcl(viewpoints, existed)
nsubj(existed, that)
From China comes news of a new super-small mobile phone .
nsubj(comes, news)

Treebank Statistics (UD_English)

This relation is universal.

20389 nodes (8%) are attached to their parents as nsubj.

19622 instances of nsubj (96%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent). Average distance between parent and child is 2.50517435872284.

The following 60 pairs of parts of speech are connected with nsubj: en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PRON (10124; 50% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NOUN (3392; 17% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PROPN (1546; 8% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PRON (1198; 6% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NOUN (1035; 5% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PRON (1030; 5% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NOUN (489; 2% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PROPN (215; 1% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PROPN (188; 1% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PRON (145; 1% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/NOUN (122; 1% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PRON (91; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/ADJ (78; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/DET (73; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/NOUN (72; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/PRON (68; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NUM (62; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/NOUN (57; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/PRON (50; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PRON (44; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/DET (30; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/NOUN (29; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NUM (22; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PROPN (20; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/DET (16; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PROPN (15; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADJ (14; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/PRON (13; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PROPN (13; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NUM (12; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/PROPN (12; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/PRON (11; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/ADJ (11; 0% instances), en-pos/SYM-en-pos/NOUN (11; 0% instances), en-pos/SYM-en-pos/PRON (11; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/NOUN (8; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/VERB (8; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/NOUN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/NOUN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/NUM (5; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/ADV (5; 0% instances), en-pos/X-en-pos/NOUN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/PROPN (4; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/ADJ (4; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/VERB (3; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/ADJ (2; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/DET (2; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/X (2; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADP (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), en-pos/INTJ-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/INTJ-en-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/SYM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/SYM (1; 0% instances).

# visual-style 1	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 1	fgColor:white
# visual-style 3	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 3	fgColor:white
# visual-style 3 1 nsubj	color:blue
1	We	we	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=1|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	've	have	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	moved	move	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	on	on	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_

# visual-style 6	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 6	fgColor:white
# visual-style 4	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 4	fgColor:white
# visual-style 4 6 nsubj	color:blue
1	From	from	ADP	IN	_	3	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	AP	AP	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
4	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	this	this	DET	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	det	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
7	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	_

# visual-style 6	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 6	fgColor:white
# visual-style 9	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 9	fgColor:white
# visual-style 9 6 nsubj	color:blue
1	Now	now	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
3	people	people	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	nsubj	_	_
4	wonder	wonder	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
6	Google	Google	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nsubj	_	_
7	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	9	aux	_	_
8	even	even	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	survive	survive	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	4	ccomp	_	_
10	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_


Treebank Statistics (UD_English-ESL)

This relation is universal.

10016 nodes (10%) are attached to their parents as nsubj.

9688 instances of nsubj (97%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent). Average distance between parent and child is 2.20666932907348.

The following 55 pairs of parts of speech are connected with nsubj: en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PRON (5693; 57% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NOUN (1447; 14% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PRON (841; 8% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PRON (431; 4% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NOUN (425; 4% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/DET (236; 2% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NOUN (204; 2% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PROPN (122; 1% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/DET (109; 1% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/DET (80; 1% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/NOUN (44; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PRON (41; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PROPN (34; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/PRON (33; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/NOUN (32; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PROPN (32; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PRON (25; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/ADJ (25; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PRON (24; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/NOUN (13; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NUM (12; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/NOUN (12; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NUM (12; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/DET (7; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/DET (6; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/VERB (5; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PROPN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/DET (5; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/PRON (5; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADJ (4; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/PRON (4; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/ADV (4; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/SYM (4; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PROPN (3; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/NOUN (3; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/DET (3; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/ADJ (3; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/NUM (3; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/VERB (3; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/DET (2; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/DET (2; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/NOUN (2; 0% instances), en-pos/SYM-en-pos/NOUN (2; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PART (2; 0% instances), en-pos/X-en-pos/NOUN (2; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PART (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/SYM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/NOUN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/VERB (1; 0% instances), en-pos/PART-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/SYM-en-pos/DET (1; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/SCONJ (1; 0% instances).

# visual-style 6	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 6	fgColor:white
# visual-style 7	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 7	fgColor:white
# visual-style 7 6 nsubj	color:blue
1	_	_	SCONJ	IN	_	4	mark	_	_
2	_	_	DET	DT	_	3	det	_	_
3	_	_	NOUN	NN	_	4	nsubj	_	_
4	_	_	VERB	VBD	_	7	advcl	_	_
5	_	_	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
6	_	_	PRON	PRP	_	7	nsubj	_	_
7	_	_	VERB	VBD	_	0	root	_	_
8	_	_	DET	DT	_	9	det	_	_
9	_	_	NOUN	NN	_	7	dobj	_	_
10	_	_	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	_	_	NOUN	NNS	_	7	nmod	_	_
12	_	_	CONJ	CC	_	7	cc	_	_
13	_	_	PRON	PRP	_	14	nsubj	_	_
14	_	_	VERB	VBD	_	7	conj	_	_
15	_	_	DET	DT	_	16	det	_	_
16	_	_	NOUN	NNS	_	14	dobj	_	_
17	_	_	ADP	IN	_	18	case	_	_
18	_	_	NOUN	NNS	_	14	nmod	_	_
19	_	_	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_

# visual-style 5	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 5	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 2	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2 5 nsubj	color:blue
1	_	_	PRON	EX	_	2	expl	_	_
2	_	_	VERB	VBZ	_	0	root	_	_
3	_	_	DET	DT	_	5	det	_	_
4	_	_	ADJ	JJ	_	5	amod	_	_
5	_	_	NOUN	NN	_	2	nsubj	_	_
6	_	_	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	_	_	VERB	VB	_	5	acl	_	_
8	_	_	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
9	_	_	SCONJ	IN	_	12	mark	_	_
10	_	_	DET	DT	_	11	det	_	_
11	_	_	NOUN	NNS	_	12	nsubj	_	_
12	_	_	VERB	VBP	_	2	advcl	_	_
13	_	_	PART	RB	_	12	neg	_	_
14	_	_	VERB	VB	_	12	xcomp	_	_
15	_	_	NOUN	NN	_	14	dobj	_	_
16	_	_	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_

# visual-style 3	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 3	fgColor:white
# visual-style 6	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 6	fgColor:white
# visual-style 6 3 nsubj	color:blue
1	_	_	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
2	_	_	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
3	_	_	PRON	PRP	_	6	nsubj	_	_
4	_	_	VERB	VBD	_	6	cop	_	_
5	_	_	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
6	_	_	ADJ	JJ	_	0	root	_	_
7	_	_	PART	TO	_	8	mark	_	_
8	_	_	VERB	VB	_	6	advcl	_	_
9	_	_	PRON	EX	_	10	expl	_	_
10	_	_	VERB	VBD	_	8	ccomp	_	_
11	_	_	PART	RB	_	10	neg	_	_
12	_	_	NOUN	NNS	_	10	nsubj	_	_
13	_	_	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	_	_	DET	DT	_	15	det	_	_
15	_	_	NOUN	NN	_	10	nmod	_	_
16	_	_	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_


Treebank Statistics (UD_English-LinES)

This relation is universal.

6804 nodes (8%) are attached to their parents as nsubj.

6437 instances of nsubj (95%) are right-to-left (child precedes parent). Average distance between parent and child is 2.34861845972957.

The following 43 pairs of parts of speech are connected with nsubj: en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PRON (3441; 51% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NOUN (1373; 20% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/PROPN (787; 12% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PRON (282; 4% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PRON (243; 4% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NOUN (176; 3% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NOUN (108; 2% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/PRON (66; 1% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/PRON (48; 1% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/PROPN (43; 1% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/PROPN (43; 1% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/NOUN (31; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/ADJ (24; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PRON (22; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/NOUN (18; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/NUM (14; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/NOUN (12; 0% instances), en-pos/AUX-en-pos/PROPN (10; 0% instances), en-pos/PRON-en-pos/PROPN (9; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PRON (7; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/NOUN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/PROPN (5; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/NOUN (4; 0% instances), en-pos/PUNCT-en-pos/PRON (4; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/PRON (3; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/X (3; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/NOUN (3; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADJ (2; 0% instances), en-pos/ADP-en-pos/PRON (2; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PROPN (2; 0% instances), en-pos/PART-en-pos/PRON (2; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/ADV (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADJ-en-pos/SCONJ (1; 0% instances), en-pos/ADV-en-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/DET-en-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/INTJ-en-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/ADJ (1; 0% instances), en-pos/NOUN-en-pos/NUM (1; 0% instances), en-pos/NUM-en-pos/PRON (1; 0% instances), en-pos/PROPN-en-pos/ADJ (1; 0% instances), en-pos/SCONJ-en-pos/PROPN (1; 0% instances), en-pos/VERB-en-pos/X (1; 0% instances).

# visual-style 1	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 1	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 2	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2 1 nsubj	color:blue
1	That	_	PRON	DEM-SG	_	2	nsubj	_	_
2	is	_	VERB	PRES	_	0	root	_	_
3	:	_	PUNCT	Colon	_	2	punct	_	_

# visual-style 3	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 3	fgColor:white
# visual-style 4	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 4	fgColor:white
# visual-style 4 3 nsubj	color:blue
1	A	_	DET	IND-SG	_	3	det	_	_
2	long	_	ADJ	POS	_	3	amod	_	_
3	time	_	NOUN	SG	_	4	nsubj	_	_
4	passed	_	VERB	PAST	_	0	root	_	_
5	.	_	PUNCT	Period	_	4	punct	_	_

# visual-style 1	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 1	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2	bgColor:blue
# visual-style 2	fgColor:white
# visual-style 2 1 nsubj	color:blue
1	Access	_	PROPN	SG	_	2	nsubj	_	_
2	supports	_	VERB	PRES	_	0	root	_	_
3	the	_	DET	DEF	_	6	det	_	_
4	XML	_	PROPN	SG	_	6	compound	_	_
5	Schema	_	NOUN	SG	_	4	name	_	_
6	standard	_	NOUN	SG	_	2	dobj	_	_
7	(	_	PUNCT	LeftParenthesis	_	8	punct	_	_
8	XSD	_	X	NOM	_	6	amod	_	_
9	)	_	PUNCT	RightParenthesis	_	8	punct	_	_
10	.	_	PUNCT	Period	_	2	punct	_	_


nsubj in other languages: [bg] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [eu] [fa] [fi] [fr] [ga] [he] [hu] [it] [ja] [ko] [sv] [u]