2.2.1. Subject and object identification

Despite the complexities, some strategies exist to distinguish between the syntactic functions of subjects and objects. Firstly, the position of a word in a sentence can help in the subject-object identification (SYNTAX 2.2.1.1); anaphoric references can be used as a diagnostic test in the aforementioned distinction (SYNTAX 2.2.1.2); in some cases, pronoun copying strategies can also function as tools in the distinction of syntactic roles (SYNTAX 2.2.1.3); and finally, null pronouns (SYNTAX 2.2.1.4) can be helpful diagnostic tools in identifying these two grammatical functions.