What is the subject when time passes in a narrative (eg １ヶ月を経る）?

Question

(This might be a quick easy question but sometimes the answers to these are unexpected.) What is the subject in the following sentences？ I've given my best efforts for the examples 1-4 below. (I am increasingly in favour of my alternative answer but still not sure.) >1. 1か月を経ても音沙汰{おとさた}がない｜A month has passed [elapsed] and we have had no news. >2. なす事もなく日を経る｜spend [pass] one's days in idleness >3. 事故以来3年を経た｜It has been three years since the accident. >4. 2年を経て彼らは結婚した｜They got married [two years later / after two years ____________________________________ For what they are worth, my initial answers were: 1. 時, 2. 彼／私／自分, 3. 時 (same as 1) , 4. 彼ら But alternatively perhaps they are all 時 as in the sentence: >時は止まる ことなく 流れる。 Time passes with out stopping (equivalent to "Time waits for noone") In sentence 2 there is a clause modifying 日 and in 4 we have two separate clauses. This is because: Although the clause is transitive in Japanese (or at least has a "spatial を" as in 鳥が湖を飛ぶ, the bird flies over the lake), the English equivalent has a specified period as the subject with an intransitive verb (as in "two years passed")

Answer 1

経る is an intransitive verb, so the span of time itself should be the time/experience itself. I'm imagining that time is spacial, so it takes を too.

When in the -TE form, it should be acting as a complex particle, like として or にとっては, so in that case it's not really working by normal verb rules.