Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 173):
The difference in degree of involvement is also reflected in the extent to which an element is available for a critical rôle in the interpersonal metafunction. Prototypically, participants can be assigned the status of Subject, being made to carry the burden of the argument, whereas circumstances cannot. This distinction is however being obscured in Modern English, where although the prepositional phrase as a whole cannot function as Subject, the nominal group inside a preposition phrase often can; e.g. the grass shouldn’t be walked on.
Blogger Caveat:
behind the fridge
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is
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their favourite place
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Subject
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Finite
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Complement
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Token
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Process
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Value
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