subjektikohad

Subjektikohad (Estonian for "subject positions") is a term used in syntax to describe the set of grammatical slots in a clause that can host the subject argument. The subject is the participant most closely associated with the verb’s action or state and typically bears nominative case and agrees with the verb in person and number. In many syntactic frameworks, the core overt subject occupies a preferred position, often described as the Specifier of the Tense Phrase (Spec-TP), which provides the features needed for subject-verb agreement.

Beyond the core subject position, languages with flexible word order may realize subjects in different slots for discourse or emphasis. This can include pre- or postverbal positions or fronted topics that function as subjects in information-structural terms. In languages that allow pro-drop, subjects can be omitted when their referent is recoverable from verbal morphology or context; the subject is then inferred from person and number marked on the verb. In Estonian, subjects are typically in nominative case and can be full noun phrases, pronouns, or names, while the verb morphology often signals person and number, enabling omission of the explicit subject.

The distribution of subjektikohad interacts with information structure, as subjects frequently align with topics or focus domains. Some languages also use expletive or dummy subjects in non-semantic positions, while the real semantic subject may appear later in the clause. Cross-linguistically, there is variation in how many subject positions exist and how flexibly they can be filled, but the notion of a primary external argument position remains a common organizing principle in syntactic analyses.