Beware the ides of March, the revenge of the moderators!

Dear Mr P.

Thank your for your reply. 

I would like to ask you whether you saw the post in question or whether you have just accepted the moderator's explanation?

I would not have been embarrassed for my post to be corrected in public. This is SUPPOSED to be a teaching forum!

The moderator gave a very poor, perfunctory, and unclear response.  He did not give any examples, and above all he gave it with absolute authority. He initally tried to shut down the thread by declaring it "Resolved" then since he knew my message would still be read he decided to delete it.

I do not enjoy being "ganged up" on. I need an advocate on my side.

 The way to present my case would be to reproduce a copy of my message for open discussion.

Sincerely,

Tallulah

hitchhiker wrote:

Admin and self-confessed dictator.

Hello Tallulah

I'm sorry if we seem to be ganging up on you. Lively posts do tend to attract a lively response. But let's go back to the post that was deleted:

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When you say "an object could be the subject of the sentence", you're not "incorrect" in any general sense; but in grammatical terms, you're confusing "subject" as in "topic" with "subject" as in "grammatical subject of the sentence" (= "something of which something is predicated").

You're also confusing "object" as in "thing" with "object" as in the grammatical object of the verb.

A thing can certainly be the "topic" of a sentence; but the object of the verb can't also be the grammatical subject of the sentence.

In your sentence "Take that off my chair", for instance, the grammatical subject (i.e. the person performing the action described by the verb) is an unstated, understood "you"; while "that" is the direct object of the verb "take."

I hope that clears it up. It really isn't a case of power-crazed mods running amok with flailing gavels. All we do is pick up litter, direct people to the washrooms, and try to get between over-excited members when they start kicking hell out of each other.

(And if you've ever found yourself stuck between a couple of over-excited members, you'll know what that can be like.)

MrP

Hello Tallulah

The grammatical subject of a sentence isn't necessarily the same as the "subject matter".

In this sentence, for instance –

1. My girlfriend ran off with the milkman.

– the grammatical subject of the sentence is "my girlfriend"; the predicate is "ran off with the milkman"; and the object of the verb "run off with" is "the milkman".

But the subject matter (the "topic") would depend on the context and intonation. For instance, the sentence might arise in a discussion of "people girlfriends run off with". ("My girlfriend ran off with the milkman!") Or a discussion of "my girlfriend". ("I forgot to tell you. My girlfriend ran off with the milkman.") Or even "milkmen" ("That's a coincidence! My girlfriend ran off with the milkman!").

Or take this one:

2. I always try to get balls into the conversation.

The subject is "I"; the predicate is the underlined part; and the object of "get" is "balls". These definitions are invariable. But the topic/subject matter could be "my charming quirks":

2a. I always try to get balls into the conversation.

Or "things we can do to promote balls":

2b. I always try to get balls into the conversation.

Or "unusual conversational gambits":

2c. I always try to get balls into the conversation.

So the problem is your use of "subject" and "object". In grammatical contexts, these have precise meanings: they don't mean "subject matter" and "thing".

Does that help?

MrP