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Dummy Subject There

There can be used as a dummy subject in English. It is used in existential clauses to refer to the existence or presence of something, and can be used with verbs like "be", "exist", or "occur". The logical subject of the verb appears as a complement rather than the grammatical subject. The dummy subject "there" agrees in number with the logical subject. Additionally, "there" can be a deictic adverb referring to a place, so some uses can be ambiguous between a pronoun and referring to a location.

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2K views1 page

Dummy Subject There

There can be used as a dummy subject in English. It is used in existential clauses to refer to the existence or presence of something, and can be used with verbs like "be", "exist", or "occur". The logical subject of the verb appears as a complement rather than the grammatical subject. The dummy subject "there" agrees in number with the logical subject. Additionally, "there" can be a deictic adverb referring to a place, so some uses can be ambiguous between a pronoun and referring to a location.

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Roberto Jr
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Dummy Subject There

Dummy Subject There


There used as a dummy subject
In English, the word there can be used as a pronoun, functioning as a
dummy subject. Examples:
There is hope.
There are some students.
There occurred a terrible accident.
There exist two major factors.
As in the examples above, there can be used with the verb to be in
existential clauses, clauses that refer to the existence or presence of something. It
can also be used with verbs like exist or occur. It is noteworthy that the logical
subject of the verbs mentioned above appears as a complement.
Hope is there.
Some students are there.
A terrible accident occurred there.
Two major factors exist there.
Agreement
The dummy subject agrees in number with the logical subject: it takes a
plural verb if the logical subject is plural; it takes a singular verb if the logical
subject is singular. In colloquial English, however, the contracted form there's is
used for singular and plural complements.
Deictic or pronoun?
The word there can be a deictic adverb, referring to a place. For this
reason, some uses of there can be ambiguous. Examples:
There is a restaurant.
This sentence may have two meanings:
1. A restaurant exists. (There is used here as pronoun)
2. A restaurant is in that place. (There is deictic referring to a place)
In speech, the deictic there is given stress. However, when there is used
as a pronoun, it is not stressed.

CCAA CAMBU EXTRA MATERIAL 1

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