Introduction to English Syntax Level 1 Course

1. Introduction to English SyntaxLevel 1 Course Ron Kuzar Department of English Language and Literature University of Haifa Chapter 6 Major Sentence Patterns: Existential Sentences

2. Expletive There • In the following sentence, the word there is an expletive subject, not a location adverb: • There are many kinds of snakes. • Note that you cannot replace there by here, or ask about its location, nor can you stress it: • *Here are many kinds of snakes. • *Where are many kinds of snakes. • THERE are many kinds of snakes. • This is so, because there is no real locational entity behind there.

3. Locative and Expletive There • Note that you may add a locative there to the sentence: • There are many kinds of snakes there/here. • There/here there are many kinds of snakes. • And you can ask questions about the locative there: • Where are there many kinds of snakes?

4. Expletive There Is a Subject • Expletive there is a subj., hence it may participate in interrogative Subj.—Aux. inversion. • Are there many kinds of snakes? • Locative there may no do so: • There she was, looking for the key. • *Was there she, looking for the key?

5. The Existential Sentence Formula • This is ,therefore, not just a copular sentence with the verb be and an initial locative adv. • Rather, it is a sentence pattern on its own, non-derivable from other sentence patterns. • The Ex. Sentence has the following formula: There (M) be NP Expletive subj. Mod. Existential verb ??? + Aux.

6. Existential BE: Lexical • Unlike its grammatical use in other places,in this pattern, be is a lexical verb. • It has the meaning of existence, and it has valency. • It requires one NP.

7. The Post-Verbal NP:Subj. or Obj.? • The syntactic status of the NP is unclear: • As the only NP in the sentence, we expect it to be the subject. (One-place predicates take subjects in Eng.). • This explains why in standard language this NP agrees with the verb: • There arePL antsPL (on the kitchen table). • There existsSG only one optionSG.

8. The Post-Verbal NP:Subj. or Obj.? • But, in colloquial style, this NP does not agree with the verb be: • There’s seven kids in the room. • Oddly, when this NP is a pronoun, it appears in the accusative rather than the nominative case: • There is them to consider as well. • Besides, the sentence HAS a grammatical subj.: the expletive.

9. The Existent • Instead of troubling ourselves in deciding between subj. and obj. (terms which might be inappropriate in certain sentence patterns), We will use a functional term for that NP:the existent. • The full formula of the Existential sentence pattern is therefore: There (M) be NP Expletive subj. Mod. Existential verb Existent + Aux.

10. Terminological Note • A distinction is sometimes drawn between ontological or absolute existentials and locational or locative existentials: Ontological existential: There are green mice. Locative existential: There are mice in the kitchen. • While philosophically interesting, this distinction has no clear syntactic correlates: • Look, there is a mouse. (implied: here) • There are many kinds of mice in the world. “In the world” – location?

11. Be and Other Existential Verbs • In colloquial style, the only verb used in Existential sentences is be. • The higher the style and the older the text, the more verbs we find used in the existential sentence construction. • Note that the semantic content of the existential verb is often deferred, in the colloquial style, to an adjunct following the existent: In the distance, there glowed a light. [higher style] In the distance, there was a light glowing. [colloq.]

12. Other Existential Verbs • In what follows a number of groups of verbs will be presented: • Exist, happen, occur, take place. • Start, begin, continue, elapse. • Come, arrive, appear, evolve, develop. • Glimmer, ring, hang, park. • Non-existential verbs

13. Exist, happen, etc. • There exists a new strain of influenza virus. • Yesterday, there happened a funny incident. • Suddenly, in the sky, there appeared birds in large numbers. • Among the unvaccinated, there occurred 159 cases of typhoid fever. • During the past two decades, there has taken place a remarkable expansion in statistical theory.

14. Aspectual Verbs • There started a war that was to last for two years. • Simultaneously, there began a series of calamitous industrial conflicts. • In foreign affairs, there continued the instability in the Balkan region. • From the insertion of the disc to the first login into Vista, there elapsed an hour.

15. Terminological Note • Aspect is a grammatical category (in some languages) that defines different points of view on the flow of time in the described situation, i.e. whether the situation is completed, still going on, just begun, etc. • Reminder: situation = an umbrella term for action, event, and state.

16. Verbs of Appearance on the Scene • Not long after that, there came another tremendous crash. • There arrived from England 450 chests of tea. • But with rapidly growing expenditures on research, there has appeared a need for some supervisory authority. • Without the merger, there could evolve a deep rift in the directing profession. • In the future, however, there might develop a difference between FireWire and USB.

17. Verbs of Intrinsic Existence • Sometimes, existence is signaled through an intrinsic action of an entity: • Far down the lake, however, there glimmered the barely visible light of a fire. • There rings a bell when the power is shut off, and then one stops work, isn’t that it? • For many years, in the hallway at my house, there hung a poster of the Flying Karamazov Brothers. • In front of the office, there parked a new model of Daihatsu. • Many years ago, when their neighborhood was still young, there towered a gigantic tree at the edge of the village.

18. Non-Existential Verbs • Sometimes non-existential verbs may signal the existence or appearance of an entity. Under the impact of the existential construction along with supporting context, such verbs acquire ad hoc existential meaning: • At once there flung into the crowded shop a boy. • There danced into my class one day a red-haired angel named Janie. • The verbs fling and dance have no existential meaning. They act as verbs of appearance thanks to the construction and the context.

19. The Indefiniteness Restriction • Since existential sentences declare the existence of an entity, such entities are usually not familiar to the hearer and as a rule are therefore represented by indefinite NPs: • There is a crack in the wall. • *There is the crack in the wall. • This restriction on the existent is called the indefiniteness restriction.

20. Exceptions: Remain and Continue • Verbs such as remain or continue refer to entities that may already be in the consciousness of the hearer. • Hence they may take both definite and indefinite existents: • There continues a decline in professionalism among attorneys. • There continues the decline in professionalism among attorneys.

21. Exceptions: Lists • When the existent consists of a list, members of the list can be definite. You want to hear about things to see in Haifa? No problem! There are some beautiful places here. There is the educational zoo, the Bahai gardens, the bustling downtown area, the architectural beauty of the Hadar area, and the bars and restaurants of the Carmel, to name just a few.

22. Marked Word Order • In the Existential Sentence construction, the existent may be fronted: • A government there is, ministers there aren’t. • This is quite rare, and requires special discourse conditions.

23. Sample Question • Distinguish between existential sentences with expletive there and other sentences with locative there. • Use the tests discussed in this chapter: • it is a locative there, if you can replace it by here,ask a question about it, or stress it. • it is an expletive, if it participates in subj.—aux. inversion. • There have been riots in the inner city. • There, there is an Oak tree. • There is my balloon. • There is nobody around here.

24. Answers • There have been riots in the inner city. • Expletive: Have there been riots…? • There, there is an Oak tree. • First there – locative, second – expletive. *There, THERE is an Oak tree. • There is my balloon. • Locative:Here is my balloon.OR expletive: – What else is there for us to take? – Oh, there’s my balloon. • There is nobody around here. • Expletive:Is there nobody/anybody around here? *Here is nobody around here

25. Homework • Distinguish between existential sentences with expletive there and other sentences with locative there. • Use the tests discussed in this chapter. • There she was, sitting and crying. • In the corner there sat a soldier, crying. • There was a girl there crying. • He walked to the chair and sat there crying. • And right there, the story took a dramatic turn. • Here and there there were marks of bullets on the wall. • Right there it was, on page 58.