[1] By extension, in syntax, it is the constituent in a clause typically functioning as the subject.
But there are also form-meaning mismatches, where the predicand is not a subject or where the predicate is not the head of the clause.
"When (3) is spoken, it can be interpreted as "it's hot" where the predicand is the ambient temperature, or it can mean that an object is hot to the touch, in which case, the predicand would be the object in question.
[4] Predicands are usually unexpressed in imperative clauses, but they are usually the person or people being addressed.
{} {} OBJ {} {}Here, you is the object of the make verb phrase, the head of the main clause.
Note that the predicand has two predicates in each case: the modifier and the head VP.
This kind of construction has traditionally been seen as a dangling modifier, though Donaldson argues otherwise.
In cleft sentences such as It's you who was right, the subject is the dummy pronoun it, but the predicand is the person being addressed, which corresponds to a complement in the VP.
Impersonal verbs, such as rain in English or havazik "snow" in Hungarian also seem to have no predicand at all.