(This might be a quick easy question but sometimes the answers to these are unexpected.)
What is the subject in the following sentences? I've given my best efforts for the examples 1-4 below. (I am increasingly in favour of my alternative answer but still not sure.)
- 1か月を経ても音沙汰{おとさた}がない|A month has passed [elapsed] and we have had no news.
- なす事もなく日を経る|spend [pass] one's days in idleness
- 事故以来3年を経た|It has been three years since the accident.
- 2年を経て彼らは結婚した|They got married [two years later / after two years
For what they are worth, my initial answers were: 1. 時, 2. 彼/私/自分, 3. 時 (same as 1) , 4. 彼ら
But alternatively perhaps they are all 時 as in the sentence:
時は止まる ことなく 流れる。 Time passes with out stopping (equivalent to "Time waits for noone")
In sentence 2 there is a clause modifying 日 and in 4 we have two separate clauses.
This is because:
Although the clause is transitive in Japanese (or at least has a "spatial を" as in 鳥が湖を飛ぶ, the bird flies over the lake), the English equivalent has a specified period as the subject with an intransitive verb (as in "two years passed")