The There Transformation

1. The There Transformation Ed McCorduck English 402--Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

2. slide 2: the locative function of there The word there has a number of functions in English: It can serve as a locative adverb (i.e., to show a location): Park the car there. I dumped my things there in the back. Put ‘erthere. English 402: Grammar

3. slide 3: there as a pro-form It can serve as a pro-form, i.e., a word or element that substitutes for a larger constituent, e.g., a phrase like a PP: You told me to leave my car in that seedy-looking lot, PP so I parked it there. = in that seedy-looking lot English 402: Grammar

4. slide 4: expletive there Another use is often called the existential or expletive there, in which there is the initial word in a sentence and it points to the existence of something; such sentences are usually based on Pattern I sentences, i.e., ones with the main verb be followed by an adverbial of time or place (see the chapter 2 “Verb Patterns and the Be Patterns” lecture): English 402: Grammar

5. slide 5: example of a sentence with expletive there ex There are traitors among us. MV (be) subj As labeled above, note that in these expletive sentences, even though there occurs in the initial position in the sentence which is normally occupied by the subject slot, there is not the subject of the sentence; the NP that occurs after the main verb is. English 402: Grammar

6. slide 6: subject-verb agreement with expletive there sentences However, especially in the spoken language the MV in expletive there sentences is singular even if the grammatical subject after the verb is plural, and especially if the verb is contracted to the there. One theory is that speakers reanalyze the sentence as though the initial there were in fact the subject—as is normally the case for the first element of a sentence—and treat there as a generalized indefinite pronoun, and thus not countable and therefore singular: English 402: Grammar

7. slide 7: subject-verb agreement with sentences with initial adverbial there standard:There are the traitors. adverb plural standard:There is/There’s the traitor. adverb adverbsingular ungrammatical:*There is/*There’s the traitors. adverbadverbplural English 402: Grammar

8. slide 8: subject-verb agreement in sentences with expletivethere standard:There are traitors among us. expletive plural standard:There is/There’s a traitor among us. expletive expletivesingular non-standard:There’s traitors among us. (prescriptively “incorrect”) expletiveplural English 402: Grammar

9. slide 9: the there transformation We say that the there transformation that produces expletive sentences beginning with there works by inverting the grammatical subject of a sentence and the main verb or any auxiliaries before the main verb, if the MV is not be (cf. the inversion transformation discussed in the “The Inversion Transformation” lecture where only the first aux element is inverted with the subject) then inserting initial there. English 402: Grammar

10. slide 10: examples of the application of the there transformation to Pattern I sentences Pattern I sentence:Traitors are among us. MV ⇒ application of there transformation:There are traitors among us. Pattern I sentence:A fire is in the barn. MV ⇒ application of there transformation:There is/There’s a fire in the barn. English 402: Grammar

11. slide 11: more examples of the application of the there transformation to Pattern I sentences Pattern I sentence:Blood will be in the streets. auxMV ⇒ application of there transformation:There will be blood in the streets. Pattern I sentence:A change has been in the works. auxMV ⇒ application of there transformation:There has/There’s been a change in the works. English 402: Grammar

12. slide 12: the application of the there transformation to other patterns besides Pattern I The there transformation can occasionally apply to other sentence patterns besides Pattern I, i.e., to sentences where the MV is not be: English 402: Grammar

13. slide 13: examples of the application of the there transformation to other sentence patterns Pattern VI sentence:Three pitiable survivors remained. MV ⇒ application of there transformation:There remained three pitiable survivors. Pattern VI sentence:An ill wind blows. MV ⇒ application of there transformation:There blows an ill wind. English 402: Grammar

14. slide 14: example of the application of the there transformation to a Pattern VII sentence Pattern VII sentence: Enraged clients will be chasing you. subjMV (V-tr) dir obj ⇒ application of there transformation: There will be enraged clients chasing you. Note that in this example the auxiliaries will and be are inverted with the subject but the MV chasing is unaffected. English 402: Grammar

15. Reed –Kellogg diagrams of sentences that have undergone the there transformation have this expletive there on a horizontal line by itself, in an area above the main horizontal line that would be in the area for the subject of the sentence if the vertical subject/predicate line were extended upward, but not connected to any other line in the diagram. For example, here is the Reed-Kellogg diagram of the expletive sentence There are enemies among us: slide 15: Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with expletive there English 402: Grammar

16. slide 16: example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of an existential there sentence English 402: Grammar

17. Contrast the above diagram with the diagram of the sentence There are our enemies which contains an adverbial there that has been moved to the front of the sentence from its original position in the predicate, which the Reed-Kellogg diagram reflects: slide 17: example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of an initial adverbial there This diagram would also be identical to that for the Pattern I sentence Our enemies are there except that the initial t of there would not be capitalized. English 402: Grammar