nsubj: nominal subject
A nominal subject (nsubj) is a nominal which is the syntactic subject and the proto-agent of a clause. It is expressed by the nominative. Note that Classical Armenian is a pro-drop language and a personal pronoun as subject is often omitted.
The nsubj relation is also used for the nominal subject of a passive verb or verb group, even though the subject is then not typically the proto-agent argument due to valency changing operations. In Classical Armenian, the subtype nsubj:pass is used in such cases.
In case of the syntactic subject of a causative verb, the subtype nsubj:caus is used.
հրեշտակ Տեառն ի տեսլեան երեւէր \n an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream
nsubj(երեւէր, հրեշտակ)
nsubj(appeareth, angel)
When the proclitic particle զ=/z=, which otherwise typically marks the referentially prominent direct object obj, specifies a sentential argument expressed by a relative clause, it can be attached to the subject of the clause in the nominative.
գործեն ՝ զ որ ոչ էր արժան գործել ի շաբաթու \n they do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day
ccomp(գործեն, արժան)
nsubj(արժան, որ)
det(որ, զ)
The logical subject of transitive verbs is typically expressed by the genitive case in the periphrastic perfect tenses. In such cases, obl:arg is used.
References
Jensen, Hans. 1959. Altarmenische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Winter.
Klein, Jared. 2017. The syntax of Armenian. In: J. Klein et al. (eds.), Handbook of comparative and historical Indo-European linguistics. Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter: 1097‒1115.
nsubj in other languages: [bej] [bg] [bm] [cop] [cs] [de] [el] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [eu] [fi] [fr] [fro] [ga] [gd] [gsw] [hy] [it] [ja] [ka] [kk] [kmr] [ky] [mr] [myv] [no] [pa] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ro] [ru] [sl] [ssp] [sv] [swl] [tr] [u] [uz] [vi] [xcl] [yue] [zh]