DEFINITION

Definition of Subject

The part of a sentence or clause that commonly indicates (a) what it is about, or (b) who or what performs the action (that is, the agent).
The subject is typically a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun. In a declarative sentence, the subject usually appears before the verb ("Gus never smiles"). In an interrogative sentence, the subject usually follows the first part of a verb ("Does Gus ever smile?").

How to Identify the Subject:

"The clearest way of spotting the subject of a sentence is to turn the sentence into a yes-no question (by this we mean a question which can be answered with either 'yes' or 'no'). In English, questions are formed by reversing the order between the subject and the first verb which follows it. Look at the following example:

He can keep a Tamagotchi alive for more than a week.

The appropriate question here if we want a 'yes' or 'no' as an answer is:

Can he keep a Tamagotchi alive for more than a week?

Here 'he' and 'can' have changed places and that means that 'he' must be the subject in the first sentence. . . .

"If there is no suitable verb in the original sentence, then use dummy do, and the subject is the constituent which occurs between do and the original verb."
(Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar, 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010)

DEFINITION OF VERB

The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being.
There are two main classes of verbs: (1) the large open class of lexical verbs (also known as main verbs or full verbs--that is, verbs that aren't dependent on other verbs); and (2) the small closed class of auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs). The two subtypes of auxiliaries

are the primary auxiliaries (be, have, and do), which can also act as lexical verbs, and the modal auxiliaries (can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, and would).

Verbs and verb phrases usually function as predicates. They can display differences in tense, mood, aspect, number, person, and voice.

• Auxiliary Verbs and Lexical Verbs
  An auxiliary verb (also known as a helping verb) determines the mood or tense of another verb in a phrase: "It will rain tonight." The primary auxiliaries are be, have, and do. The modal auxiliaries include can, could, may, must, should, will, and would.
  A lexical verb (also known as a full or main verb) is any verb in English that isn't an auxiliary verb: it conveys a real meaning and doesn't depend on another verb: "It rained all night."
• Dynamic Verbs and Stative Verbs
  A dynamic verb indicates an action, process, or sensation: "I bought a new guitar."
  A stative verb (such as be, have, know, like, own, and seem) describes a state, situation, or condition: "Now I own a Gibson Explorer."

• Finite Verbs and Nonfinite Verbs
  A finite verb expresses tense and can occur on its own in a main clause: "She walked to school."
  A nonfinite verb (an infinitive or participle) doesn't show a distinction in tense and can occur on its own only in a dependent phrase or clause: "While walking to school, she spotted a bluejay."
• Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs
  A regular verb (also known as a weak verb) forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d or -ed (or in some cases -t) to the base form: "We finished the project." (See Forming the Past Tense of Regular Verbs.)
  An irregular verb (also known as a strong verb) doesn't form the past tense by adding -d or -ed: "Gus ate the wrapper on his candy bar." (See Introduction to Irregular Verbs in English.)
• Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs
  A transitive verb is followed by a direct object: "She sells seashells."
  An intransitive verb doesn't take a direct object: "He sat there quietly." (This distinction is especially tricky because many verbs have both a transitive and an intransitive function.)

Does that cover everything verbs can do? Far from it. Causative verbs, for example, show that some person or thing helps to make something happen. Catenative verbs join with other verbs to form a chain or series. Copular verbs link the subject of a sentence to its complement.

Then there are performative verbs, prepositional verbs, iteratives, and reporting verbs. And we haven't even touched on the passive or the subjunctive.

DEFINITION Of OBJECT

A word or group of words, functioning as a noun or a pronoun, that is influenced by a verb (direct object), a verbal (indirect object), or a preposition (object of a preposition).

Examples and Observations:

• direct object
  "He had a sensation of anxiety and shame, a sensitivity acute beyond usefulness, as if the nervous system, flayed of its old hide of social usage, must record every touch of pain."
  (John Updike)
• indirect object
  "He told me the story of what happened when he won the Silver Star, but he never told me he won the Silver Star for it."
  (Vanessa Kerry)
• object of a preposition
  "Boys are playing basketball around a telephone pole with a backboard bolted to it."
  (John Updike, Rabbit, Run)
• Direct and Indirect Objects
  "Objects are most typically noun phrases. They follow the verb. They may be direct or indirect.
  
  Direct objects indicate the person or thing that undergoes the action denoted by the verb, or the participant directly affected by the action:

I like that restaurant.

She kicked him.

They stole a van and then they robbed a bank.

Indirect objects indicate the recipient of a direct object. They are usually people or animals. An indirect object (bold) is always accompanied by a direct object . . .:

They handed me a pile of forms.

Her mother sent her a cheque for her birthday.

(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, "Object." Cambridge Grammar of English, Cambridge University Press, 2006)

DEFINITION OF COMPLEMENT (MODIFIER)

A word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or adverb to provide additional information about another word or word group (called the head).
Modifiers in English include adjectives, adverbs, demonstratives, possessive determiners, prepositional phrases, degree modifiers, and intensifiers. (See Examples and Observations, below.)
Modifiers that appear before the head are called

premodifiers. Modifiers that appear after the head are called postmodifiers. Modifiers may be either restrictive (essential to the meaning of a sentence) or nonrestrictive (additional but not essential elements in a sentence).

  Types of Qualifying Modifiers
"We may use different types of conceptual units in qualifying a thing or an instance of a thing and, accordingly, use different types of modifiers in English. The sentences under (4) illustrate the most common usages of qualifying modifiers in English. In all of the examples, the head noun detective is qualified in different ways. The modifiers are printed in italics.

(4a) Hercule Poirot is a brilliant detective.
(4b) Agatha Christie's detective Poirot is a legend all over the world.
(4c) The detective with the waxed moustache solves the most baffling cases.
(4d) Hercule Poirot is the famous detective created by the English mystery writer Agatha Christie.
(4e) Poirot is a detective who has come to England as a war refugee.

"In sentence (4a), the adjective brilliant modifies the predicate noun detective. . . .

"In sentence (4b), the head noun detective is modified by the complex noun phrase Agatha Christie's, where the genitive morpheme 's expresses the relation of possession.

"In sentence (4c), the noun a detective is modified by the prepositional phrase with the waxed moustache. . . .

"In sentence (4d), two nonrestrictive modifiers are added to qualify the definite referent detective: the adjective famous and the participial phrase created by the English mystery-writer Agatha Christie. . . .

"In sentence (4e), a detective is modified by a relative clause."
(Günter Radden and René Dirven, Cognitive English Grammar. John Benjamins, 2007)
 

  Modifiers and Complements
"The notions modifier and complement can now be characterized explicitly in a way that reconstructs the normal usage of these traditional terms: a 'modifier' is a conceptually dependent predication that combines with a head, whereas a 'complement' is a conceptually autonomous predication that combines with a head. The table is consequently a complement (or 'argument') of above in above the table, and this entire prepositional phrase functions as a modifier of lamp in the lamp above the table."
(Ronald W. Langacker, "Cognitive Grammar."Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings, ed. by Dirk Geeraerts. Mouton de Gruyter, 2006)

5 SENTENCES AND DETERMINE THOSE 4 ELEMENTS (SUBJECT, VERB, OBJECT AND COMPLEMENT)

SUBJECT	VERB	OBJECT	COMPLEMENT
The noise	drove	him	mad
That case	made	The lawyer	Famous
He	painted	the wall	Green
We	found	The house	Empty
I	though	The plan	unwise
We	consider	the matter	Very important