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Where is the subject in a sentence that starts with a prepositional phrase. For example the preposition phrase beginning with after below:
After breakfast the boys wandered out to the garden.
Is the subject the boys only or After breakfast the boys, and why?
It would be helpful if someone did a tree diagram and explained the function of the prepositional phrase.
After breakfast the boys wandered out to the garden.
"After breakfast" is a prepositional phrase. In this case the phrase functions as an adverb.
"The boys wandered out to the garden" is the "meat" of the sentence. "The boys" is the subject, "wandered" is the verb, "out to the garden" is (depending on your religion) either another prepositional phrase, functioning as the object of the verb, or an adverbial phrase, modifying the verb.
"After breakfast" tells when this wandering occurs and hence is modifying "wandered".
(I don't identify the "predicate" here because different religious cults define "predicate" differently. Some believe that the predicate includes the object while others don't.)
Subject: the boys, predicate: wandered. After breakfast: adverbial modifier of time. Out into the garden: adverbial modifier of place and direction. 'Breakfast'can't possibly be the subject in this sentence since it doesn't denote the doer of the action like "the boys" (who performed the action of wandering out into the garden).
