where is the subject of a sentence?

[Haxuannguyen]

there are two women and a duck in the room

[Torsten]

Hi,

Just ask yourself this question: Who is in the room?

TOEIC short conversations: Doctor's secretary calls client to remind her about appointment.

[Lost_Soul]

Hi,
the subject is "there" (so called empty subject)

[Haihao]

Hi lost_soul,

My two cents is, supposing the two women and duck all emptied or lost their souls (just kidding :D), the subject would not be empty or lost: 'two women and a duck' should be it. Although a grammatical discussion on it wouldn't be totally unworthwhile I feel that since the be-verb follows the mentioned portion in this case, it could be considered as the subject.

Haihao