Subject verb agreement of "it is"

Question

Though I can understand the following sentence, it is really difficult to understand the associated grammar points. I mean, is the subject of "restricted" in the following sentence is "species"? Furthermore, I would really grateful if someone could provide me with some website links to learn this pattern further.

It is the smallest species of wild cat on the continent, restricted to the dense forests on the border of Chile and Argentina where it is losing its habitat to logging and human development.

Reference:-

https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=the-animals-harmed-by-superstition

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I think that's called participle clause, because participle clause could take 2 forms: Present Participle which means (ing form of the verb) or Past Participle (As it's used in your example). I suggest you to look it up in detail.

The first sentence and the second sentence have the same subject. The original sentence was like the follo

The first sentence and the second sentence have the same subject. The original sentence was like the following:

"It is the smallest species of wild cat on the continent, it is restricted to the dense forests on the border of Chile and Argentina where it is losing its habitat to logging and human development."

The pronoun "it" in the first sentence refers to "the smallest species of wild cat" ; the pronoun "it" in the second sentence, that I colored in grey, is turned back to the "smallest species of wild cat". So, both of the sentence have the same subject. In this case, instead of repeating the subject multiple times, we can omit the one in the second sentence without affecting the original meaning.

Look if I temporarily omit the other words in the first sentence, then you will see clearly how "restrict to" is related to its subject "it is"

"It is the smallest species of wild cat on the continent, restricted to"

I think you know that you couldn't say: "it is restrict", of course. Because that's a passive voice meaning. So the verb will be in the Past Participle.

CalifJim · Answer

In the text just before this sentence you see the antecedent of "it", namely, the kodkod cat (also known as the guiña).

dileepaIt (the kodkod cat) is the smallest species of wild cat on the continent. It (the kodkod cat) is restricted to the dense forests on the border of Chile and Argentina where it (the kodkod cat) is losing its habitat to logging and human development.

You might say that a participle clause is a way to combine two sentences into one when the two sentences are very closely related.

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-to-upper-intermediate/participle-clauses

CJ

BillJ · Answer

It is the smallest species of wild cat on the continent, restricted to the dense forests on the border of Chile and Argentina where it is losing its habitat to logging and human development.

The underlined expression is a non-finite clause functioning as a supplementary adjunct.

Like most non-finite clauses it has no overt subject, though we understand it to be "it", which would derive its meaning from some noun phrase found in the preceding context.

Subject verb agreement of "it is"

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