Final answer:
In the context of the phrase 'playing with sock puppets,' the 'sock puppets' are considered the object, since they receive the action. The person doing the playing is the subject of the sentence.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering the phrase “playing with sock puppets,” we're looking at a grammatical structure. In English grammar, the subject of a sentence is typically the person or thing doing the action or being described, and the object is the entity that is affected by the action. In the context of puppets, the sock puppets would be considered the object of the action, not the subject. The person manipulating the puppets would be the subject, as they are performing the action.
To clarify with an example, if we say “Alex is playing with sock puppets,” “Alex” is the subject and “sock puppets” is the object of the verb “playing.” Puppet Theater, which involves different genres of puppets like rod, string, or glove, may use objects such as puppets to play out action on a stage, but these objects don’t change their grammatical role within sentence structures.