What is the simple subject of an imperative sentence?

Answer 1

The simple subject of an imperative sentence is always or almost always "you", unless it has a person's name before the sentence. When one makes a tag question of an imperative. for example, the tag will include the "implied" subject prronoun--e.g., "Open the door, won't you?

Occasionally, however, the implicit use of "you" is made explicit for emphasis--"You eat your breakfast, you little bum!" Most linguists would consider such structures imperative sentences, and not just because they are commands. In a sentence like "You be good!," for example, the verb has a nonfinite form, showing that "you" can appear as an overt subject, distinguishing this imperative sentence from an indicative like "You are good."

The indefinite pronouns "someone" and "something" are also used as overt imperative subjects "("Someone open the door") or even implied subjects ("Open the door, won't someone?"). It is might, therefore, better to say that overt subjects in imperative sentences are optional and rare, but the notion that imperative sentences always have an implicit "you" as an unexpressed subject is good enough for school grammars, but I have seen it linguistic discussion of syntax as well, probably because theoretical linguists tend to simplify rather than discuss rare exceptions. One could, I suppose, argue that such cases actually imply "someone among you" as the subject, or as a last resort, relegate them to "pragmatics."

Answer 2

You (singular/plural, implied)