Subject or Object

[Unregistered]

Can anyone please tell me if "What" and "fish" are both subjects in the following sentence or is "fish" the object:-

"What happens if it's dirty fish?"

I'm trying to analyse each word in the sentence e.g. "happens" is the verb, "if" is the conjunction etc.

All help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[IHIVG]

First, I think the sentence has a problem with wording. It's somewhat unclear what you meant to say.

Are you analysing the words as the parts of speech (i.e. verb, noun) or parts of the sentence (subject, predicate)?

 

[philo2009]

Can anyone please tell me if "What" and "fish" are both subjects in the following sentence or is "fish" the object:-

"What happens if it's dirty fish?"

I'm trying to analyse each word in the sentence e.g. "happens" is the verb, "if" is the conjunction etc.

All help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

'Fish' here is a complement, neither a subject nor an object.

 

[corum]

I was thinking whether 'it' can have pleonastic reading.

What happens if it is fish (that you are after)?

fish = true subject
it = grammatical subject (of the subordinate clause introduced by 'if') :multi::cheers:

 

[ratóncolorao]

Can anyone please tell me if "What" and "fish" are both subjects in the following sentence or is "fish" the object:-

"What happens if it's dirty fish?"

I'm trying to analyse each word in the sentence e.g. "happens" is the verb, "if" is the conjunction etc.

All help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

From my point of view it should be analysed this way:

1º.- It is a subordinate clause
2º.- Main sentence: What happens - What : subject and Happens: verb
3º.- Subordinate sentence, which in this case it is a conditional one : if : Conjunction. ( Mark of conditional sentences) .
4º.- After that we have a sentences with the verb To Be, which we know it works as a linking verb.
Subject: it . Complement: dirty fish . Dirty: adjective. Fish: noum.

A linking verb is a verb that connects the subject to the complement. They are sometimes called copula or copular verbs. (definition found in this forum).

 

[philo2009]

I was thinking whether 'it' can have pleonastic reading.

What happens if it is fish (that you are after)?

fish = true subject
it = grammatical subject (of the subordinate clause introduced by 'if') :multi::cheers:

The kind of meaning assigned to 'it' is irrelevant to the grammatical analysis: 'fish' remains a complement!