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(Also known as subjective cases)

For example:

Samatha stared down at the broken shards, [her] eyes welling with tears.

In this sentence, would the nominative case of 'her' need to be added in order for the sentence to be correct?

Another example:

He glowered down at Samantha, who stood at a measly 5’1 height. Samatha felt squashed by the glare; [she] felt unable to breathe.

Is the latter part of the last sentence grammatically correct without the nominative case 'she'?

I really want to drop these words so I can increase the pace of the scene I'm writing, but I'm unsure if it's correct English to do so.

Thank you so much in advance!

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  • In untensed clauses (infinitives, gerunds, and participles) the subject does not use the nominative form of pronouns (I). That's reserved for tensed clauses. The subjects of infinitives and past participles are objective (me) and the subjects of -ing forms (gerunds and present participles) may be either possessive (my) or objective.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 16:17
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    This has probably been covered before so I won't give an answer. But: 'Samatha felt squashed by the glare ... felt unable to breathe.' (not the semicolon) uses subject deletion I'm sure is quite acceptable in fiction. It sounds rarefied in conversation, but adds drama in a novel. // In your first example: equally grammatical for the genre ... but I'd query the style choice.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 16:21
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    Surely her is the possessive, not the nominative? I think it could be omitted anyway. In the second example, I would omit the second felt as well as she.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 16:24
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    In the first example, eyes welling with tears is an absolute phrase; it has eyes as its own subject (not Samantha) and, without her, it could technically be anybody's eyes. Samatha stared down at the broken shards, [her mother's] eyes welling with tears. Keep her. For the second example, try: Samatha felt squashed by the glare, unable to breathe.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 20:24

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Samatha stared down at the broken shards, [her] eyes welling with tears.

Her here is a genitive, not a nominative. As Huddleston & Pullum (2002) note, verbless clauses can "appear 'condensed,' with the subject consisting of a single word even when it is a count singular noun," as in examples like "face red with anger" (p. 268). In your example the subject (eyes) is a plural count noun, but the same principle explains why the determiner her can be omitted without a change in meaning.

He glowered down at Samantha, who stood at a measly 5’1 height. Samatha felt squashed by the glare; [she] felt unable to breathe.

No such rule applies here. "She felt unable to breathe" is a complete sentence and needs a subject.

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  • Are you taking welling as adjective?
    – TimR
    Commented Feb 19 at 13:29

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