Meaning of subject (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Subject:

The term subject is seen as an adjective that indicates everything that is exposed or prone to a thing, for example: "students are subject to the regulations of the university." Also, subject points to the person or thing that is holding, so that they cannot fall or move, as "children are held by a rope".

In the legal field, the subject of law is one who participates in a right relationship, and enjoys rights or duties, in this sense can be an active or passive subject. The active subject is the holder of the legal power, while the taxable person is the holder of the duty, that is, he must comply with the established obligation, such as the payment of taxes.

In relation to the above, moral entities and legal entities, such as: company, society, among others, are also subjects of law.

In relation to grammar, the subject is the person, animal or thing that executes the verbal action. Functionally, what characterizes the subject is the fact that it is a phrase that forces the verb to agree with it in number and person. In relation to this, the function of the subject can only be performed by a noun phrase, or by substantive words. Example: "children are playing", subject: children.

In philosophy, the subject is the human spirit considered in opposition to the exterior. The father of modern philosophy, Rene Descartes studied the subject as a rational being, responsible for making his own decisions.

As for epistemology, the knowing subject relates the subject and object, since it reflects the agreement in thought between subject - object.

From the point of logic, subject is the being from which something is announced or pronounced.

On the other hand, the term subject can be used in a derogatory sense or when the name of the person or thing is not known in order to avoid naming the person, such as "that subject is very daring".

Types of subjects

• Agent subject, is the one who performs the action of the verb, for example: "the children threw the ball", "José eats sweets". Compound subject, when there is more than one noun or pronoun, such as: “Alexander and Sergio play soccer. Express or explicit subject, is characterized by being present in the sentence, such as: "my cousin wants another puppy." Implicit subject, also known as tacit subject or elliptical subject, is the opposite of the previous one, since it does not appear in the sentence but it is understood, for example: “we ate pasta”, implicit subject: us. Patient subject is one who receives the action of the verb, for example: "the princes of England were received with great affection", "the chocolate was eaten by Carlota". Simple subject, the sentence has a single nucleus, the case of “Andrea travels to Paris tomorrow”.

Subject and predicate

The predicate is the set of words expressed by a verbal phrase, whose core is the verb. For example: "My brother is at home", in relation to this sentence the predicate is: he is at home, and the subject is: my brother.