It is I who want(s) to go to bed

[Laura Corin]

I'm not a good grammarian and I can't work this out:

 

'(It is) I (who) want to go to bed'

 

or

 

'..... who wants to go to bed'

 

Is 'I' the subject of the whole sentence or is 'who' the subject of the second half? Or am I analysing this incorrectly?

 

I've seen varying answers to the question.....

 

ETA: what if I add in an appositive: 'It is I, Laura, who want(s) to go to bed'?

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[Petrichor]

I'm 90% sure that "it" is the subject of the sentence

[Myra]

http://1aiway.com/nlp4net/services/enparser/

 

Reed-Kellogg Diagramming Website - someone posted this earlier on these boards. It's helped me out so much so I thought I'd pass the link on! Maybe it will help you out!

 

Myra

[LaxMom]

I'm 90% sure that "it" is the subject of the sentence

 

 

Me, too. In my head, I am diagramming that as "it" being the subject and "I" the direct object, with "who wants to go to bed" as the appositive phrase describing "I".

[SpecialClassical]

"I "can't be the direct object because it is not receiving the action of the verb. When you have a state of being verb, there is no DO.

[SpecialClassical]

So, I am thinking whom is a predicate nominative that starts a noun clause.

[Cosmos]

Yes, "It" is the subject. The main clause of the sentence is "It is I" -- a subject with a linking verb and predicate nominative. That's the straightforward part.

 

The difficult part is the adjective clause "who want/wants to go to bed". The subject of this clause is the relative pronoun "who". In order to determine what verb form to use with "who" we look to its antecedent. Normally, we need only think about whether the antecedent is singular or plural, as in these sentences:

 

It is the cat who wants to go to bed.

It is the cats who want to go to bed.

 

But actually we do have to consider the number *and* person of the antecedent. It just doesn't happen very often that it makes a difference. In this case the antecedent is "I" (first person, singular) so we use the appropriate verb form "want".

 

It is I who want to go to bed.

 

A good check is to take the antecedent of the pronoun ("I") and substitute it for the pronoun. It must (a) make sense and (B) fit grammatically. In this sentence, we check by saying "I want to go to bed" and it works.

[Laura Corin]

Me, too. In my head, I am diagramming that as "it" being the subject and "I" the direct object, with "who wants to go to bed" as the appositive phrase describing "I".

 

 

Isn't 'I' the predicate nominative? I'm feeling my way here. 'To be' is a linking verb, so it's followed by the pred nom in the the nominative form, ('I' not 'me')? I've just checked and it seems that the pred nom doesn't change the verb agreement, so it should still be 'wants' in that case (to agree with 'It').

 

What do you think?

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[happyhomemaker]

Nm

[Laura Corin]

Yes, "It" is the subject. The main clause of the sentence is "It is I" -- a subject with a linking verb and predicate nominative. That's the straightforward part.

 

The difficult part is the adjective clause "who want/wants to go to bed". The subject of this clause is the relative pronoun "who". In order to determine what verb form to use with "who" we look to its antecedent. Normally, we need only think about whether the antecedent is singular or plural, as in these sentences:

 

It is the cat who wants to go to bed.

It is the cats who want to go to bed.

 

But actually we do have to consider the number *and* person of the antecedent. It just doesn't happen very often that it makes a difference. In this case the antecedent is "I" (first person, singular) so we use the appropriate verb form "want".

 

It is I who want to go to bed.

 

A good check is to take the antecedent of the pronoun ("I") and substitute it for the pronoun. It must (a) make sense and ( B) fit grammatically. In this sentence, we check by saying "I want to go to bed" and it works.

 

 

How do we know that 'who' refers back to 'I' (the predicate nominative) rather than 'it' (the subject)? Your second 'cats' example definitely feels as if one should make the 'who' agree with the pred nom and not the subject, but I'm struggling with why that should be.

 

Thanks

 

Laura

[Cosmos]

How do we know that 'who' refers back to 'I' (the predicate nominative) rather than 'it' (the subject)? Your second 'cats' example definitely feels as if one should make the 'who' agree with the pred nom and not the subject, but I'm struggling with why that should be.

 

Thanks

 

Laura

 

 

I suppose because it directly follows "I". I believe that in English a relative clause must follow directly the noun or noun phrase it modifies. If we start with a basic sentence with a predicate nominative, such as:

 

The man is a fiend.

 

We can modify the subject by adding an adjective clause after "man" or modify the predicate nominative by adding an adjective clause after "fiend". We depend on the location of the clause to know which noun is being modified.

 

The man who bakes cookies is a fiend. (clause answers "which man?")

The man is a fiend who bakes cookies. (clause answers "what kind of fiend?")

 

If we wanted to modify the subject in the original sentence we would have change "it" to "the one" or "the woman" or some other noun and say:

 

The one who wants to go to bed is I.

[Laura Corin]

Okay - thanks to you all this is starting to make sense, I think. Let's see if I have this straight:

 

It is I (subject, linking verb, predicate nominative)

who (relative pronoun referring to 'I' because it follows it, introducing....)

want to go to bed (....adjective clause modifying and agreeing with 'I')

 

I think I may have it. And now it's bed time.

 

Thanks again,

 

Laura