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Nominative: subject of a finite predicate
studieniveau:
1
ἔνδον μου τῆς ψυχῆς ἄλλος πόλεμος κάθηται.
‘In my soul a different conflict rages.’ (Ach. Tat. 4.4,7)
The nominative signals the syntactic function ‘subject’ in finite main and subordinate clauses. If possible the predicate agrees with its subject in number and gender.
Syntactic usage
In most finite sentences the nominative is not expressed: Greek does not require the presence of a (pro)nominal phrase for designating the subject. The presence of such a phrase often implies that the subject functions as the focus.
Example Sentences:
Δημοσθένης λέγεται [...] καὶ τὴν Πυθίαν ὑπονοεῖν ὡς φιλιππίζουσαν
Of Demosthenes it is said that he even suspected the Pythia of sympathising with Philip.