Subject (definition)
The traditional definition of subject is the 'doer' of the action. This is problematic though because while this covers most grammatical subjects, it does not cover logical or underlying subjects (ex. Objects). Some languages make a distinction between these two types by giving the subject a subjunctive case and the object an objective case. It can be seen also as the topic of the phrase of what is referred to in the sentence. In linguistics terms it is often referred to as the agent.
References
Crystal, David. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. The language library. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1997.
Crystal, David, and David Crystal. The Penguin Dictionary of Language. London: Penguin, 1999.
Matthews, P. H. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
External Links
Warning: use www.wikipedia.org articles with caution, they often include inaccurate information.
