‘By remembering it I have been able to understand many people and things that I was never able to understand before.’ [21, 12] where the Subject is expressed by the personal pronoun ‘I’.
Still, some cases where the subject is expressed by numerals, interrogative and demonstrative pronouns are also noticed.
‘Who can love from a picture?’ mocked the marriage broker.’ [24, 414] where the Subject ‘who’ is expressed by the interrogative pronoun.
‘This is my baby, my Stella, she should burn in hell.’ [24, 412] where the Subject ‘this’ is expressed by a demonstrative pronoun.
‘Hundreds and hundreds were the truths and they were all beautiful.’ [21,12] where the Subject is expressed by cardinal numerals.
The Subject is undoubtedly maintained in American fiction as well.
The notional ‘it’ is noticed much oftener in comparison with the formal ‘it’ as it is witnessed in British fiction as well.
‘Well, it is the weakness, then,’ said the doctor. [22, 100] where the subject ‘it’ is notional and denotes a thing expressed by a predicative noun.
‘It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her.’ [23, 12] where the Subject ‘it’ is notional and denotes a definite object mentioned before.
‘No, it wasn’t a youth, it was a woman, young, and wearing a coat of mail like a knight.’ [21, 10] where the Subject ‘it’ is again notional and denotes a thing expressed by predicative noun.
The introductory features of ‘there’ are kept on the pages of the American fiction as well.
‘There are only five left now’ [22, 102]
‘There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room.’ [23, 12]
Thus, the Subject features in American fiction are predominantly similar to the ones kept in British literature; the only noticed peculiarity is the instrumental function of the Subject.
Conclusion
On the basis of the theoretical and practical investigation of the Subject within the framework of distinguishing its features in American and British fiction conforming to the examined theory, we have reached the following results of the research work:
The Subject justifies its definition of being ‘the main part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the predicate is grammatically dependent’ in combination with all the other characteristics mentioned by different grammarians of any languages practically throughout the investigated fiction.
Classifications of the Subject presented in two variants reflect that from structural point of view, simple and complex types of the Subject are predominantly used. From functional point of view, the agentive and affected role of the Subject is generally maintained. Vivid examples proving the present conclusion are presented in Chapter Two.
Ways of expressing the Subject vary mainly surely between the nouns in nominal case (these examples constitute the majority part of expressing the Subject), personal pronouns (that also present a vast percentage of the examples where they are in the role of the Subject), demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite pronouns are of less often frequency.
Numerals are also used in the role of the Subject, these cases are mainly characteristic of the colloquial dialogues.
Infinitive and gerundial constructions possess a rather high index of frequency usage identified in the investigated fiction.
Concerning ‘it’ Subject, the results of the investigations prove to state that generally the notional type of ‘it’ is practiced in the role of the Subject. Formal type of ‘it’ Subject is used much more moderate.
Regarding the other parts of speech that also can be used in the role of the Subject, that is substantivized adjective or participle, any part of speech used as a quotation, a group of words which is one part of the sentence, i.e. a syntactically indivisible group are less preferred both by the American and British writers within the given project.
In reference to the feature differences in the usage of the Subject in American and British fiction, we can surely state that both cultures prefer to use common features of the Subject. The only characteristic of the American fiction touches the fact that instrumental function of the Subject is used a little oftener whereas British writers keep 100%-preference to the Subject expressed by nouns and personal pronouns.
The implemented investigation will be elaborated in the subsequent thesis of the next year based on the fiction of the John Galsworthy (‘The Forsyte Saga’) where detailed internal research analysis will be executed.
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