Expletive elements in English Referential it versus expletive it

Ordinary referential it has some referent. As a result, it can be replaced by a more complex description of that referent, and it can function (though marginally) as a sentence fragment answer to a question. Referential it can also (marginally) receive stress.

(1) a. It bit my leg.
b. The dog bit my leg.
(2) a. What bit my leg?
b. ? (pointing) It.
Expletive it doesn't refer, so it can't be replaced, as shown in (3), and even the question (4a) that the sentence fragment (4b) attempts to answer is ungrammatical. In contrast to referential it, expletive it can never receive stress.

(3) a. It seems that the manuscript has been found.
b. * The fact seems that the manuscript has been found.
(4) a. * What seems that the manuscript has been found?
b. * It.
Adverbial there versus expletive there
Ordinary adverbial there has a locative meaning, so that the adjuncts (right) here and (over) there render (5a) and (5b) contradictory and redundant, respectively. It is possible to stress ordinary there.

(5) a. # There comes the train (right) here.
b. There comes the train (over) there.
Expletive there, on the other hand, has no such locative meaning, and so both sentences in (6) are completely acceptable. In contrast to ordinary there, expletive there can never receive stress.

(6) a. There is a clean shirt (right) here.
b. There is a clean shirt (over) there.
Expletive it
In (18a), the italicized that clause functions as the sole syntactic argument of the adjective evident, on a par with the noun phrase in (18b). (For simplicity, we disregard the copula as semantically vacuous.)

(18) a. That they are corrupt is evident.
b. Their corruption is evident.
An indication of the semantic equivalence of the two phrases is the fact that they can both be elicited by the same question.

(19) a. What is evident?
b. That they are corrupt.
Their corruption.
In addition to (18a), a synonymous variant, (20), is available in which the that clause appears at the end of the entire sentence and the original position of the that clause is occupied by the expletive pronoun it.

(20) It is evident that they are corrupt.
The term 'expletive' means that the pronoun does not refer to a discourse entity in the ordinary way that pronouns do. Ordinary referential it has some referent, whereas expletive it doesn't. As a result, the question-answer sequence in (21) is possible, whereas the one in (22) is not.

(21) a. What bit my leg?
b. (pointing to a dog) It did.
(22) a. * What is evident that they are corrupt?
b. * It is.
Given that the that clause satisfies the semantic requirement of evident for an argument in both (18a) and (20), the presence of the expletive pronoun in (20) is striking. From a semantic point of view, it is unnecessary, and one might therefore expect it to be optional. But this is not the case, as the ungrammaticality of (23) shows.

(23) * Is evident that they are corrupt.
The ungrammaticality of (23) leads us to conclude that there exists a purely syntactic well-formedness condition requiring all clauses to have a subject.
Earlier, we saw that it is possible for arguments to be semantically necessary and yet not to be expressed in the syntax. Expletive subjects represent roughly the converse of this situation, being cases where an expression that is not motivated by semantic considerations is nevertheless obligatory in the syntax.
Expletive there
In English, further evidence for the purely syntactic character of the subject requirement comes from the expletive there construction. No (26) illustrates an ordinary sentence and its counterpart with expletive there.

(26) a. Several vexing questions remain.
b. There remain several vexing questions.
Expletive there differs from ordinary there in much the same way as expletive it differs from referential it. Ordinary there substitutes for phrases with a locative or directional meaning. Accordingly, the phrases right here and over there render (27a) and (27b) contradictory and redundant, respectively.

(27) a. # There comes the train right here.
b. There comes the train over there.
Expletive there, on the other hand, has no such locative meaning, and so both sentences in (28) are completely acceptable and unexceptional.

(28) a. There is a clean shirt right here.
b. There is a clean shirt over there.
A related difference is that expletive there, unlike ordinary there, is incompatible with stress.
Just as expletive it occupies the position that would otherwise be occupied by a clausal subject, expletive there occupies the position that would otherwise be occupied by a noun phrase subject. And just as in the case of expletive it, omitting expletive there results in ungrammaticality.

(29) * Remain several vexing questions.
It should be pointed out that not every English sentence has an expletive there counterpart. Rather, expletive there is subject to a licensing condition (a necessary condition for its occurrence) that can be stated roughly as in (30).

(30) Expletive there must be the subject of a verb of existence or coming into existence.
In the following examples, the licensing (Fregean) predicate is underlined.

(31) a. After their military defeat, there arose among the Plains tribes a powerful spiritual movement.
b. There is a problem.
c. There began a reign of terror.
d. In the end, there emerged a new caudillo.
e. There ensued a period of unrest and lawlessness.
f. There exists an antidote.
g. There follows a section on the care of gerbils.
h. There has occurred an unfortunate incident.
i. There remains a single course of action.
Predicates that aren't verbs of (coming into) existence don't license expletive there. This is the reason that the following examples are ungrammatical; the non-licensing (Fregean) predicates are highlighted in red.

(32) a. * There came more than sixty dignitaries.
b. * There continued the same problem.
c. * There rang the mail carrier.
d. * There sang an impressive choir from Russia.
e. * There walked a poodle into the room.

Description: 'There' is used as an expletive in the following constructions, usually with the linking verb 'to be', though certain other verbs are possible. The verb may be used in any tense and is singular or plural according to the following subject. (a) 'there' + 'be' (etc.) + subject + prepositional phrase (e.g. There is a tree in front of the house.) (b) 'there' + 'be' + subject + adjective modifier (e.g. there are many flowers blooming now.)

EXPLETIVE (1), is an essentially empty word or phrase inserted into a sentence. It too adds little or nothing to meaning but sometimes fills a useful structural or stylistic purpose. Hence a dummy subject such as there in There is another sailboat is an expletive (2). The adverb there is always readily distinguished from the expletive there; the adverb comes either first or at the very end of the clause (the adverbs are in boldfaced type): There there is another sailboat. There is another sailboat there. See DUMMY SUBJECTS.

In sentences such as the following, there and it are variously called expletives, empty subjects, anticipatory subjects, or dummy subjects: There is a high wind tonight. There are several latecomers in the lobby. It’s easy to see she’s worn out. In speech and Informal writing these dummy subjects are handy entries into sentences whose real subjects you have not yet chosen. And sometimes, even in finished writing, the formulaic beginning can be a welcome, pace-changing inversion. To replace A high wind is blowing tonight; Several latecomers are in the lobby; You can easily see she’s worn out, the formulaic beginning sometimes serves well, particularly to suggest a Conversational tone. The only caution is against overuse.
In many kinds of English sentence, you will find the word "it" or the word "there" in the subject position. These are usually "impersonal" sentences -- sentences where there is no natural subject. This introduction will help you to understand when to use "it" and when to use "there".

Impersonal "it"


When to use it Examples
Talking about weather It's raining.
It's cold.
It was sunny yesterday.
Identifying something "Who is it?"
"It's me."
"What is it?"
"It's a cat."
Talking about time "What time is it?"
"It's five o'clock."
"What day is it?"
"It's Thursday."
Talking about distance "How far is it to Toronto?"
"It's 4000 kilometers."
Impersonal "there"
Impersonal "there" is used to say that something exists in a particular place:

Singular There is a book on the table.
Plural There are three men in the car.

What is a dummy word?
A dummy word is a grammatical unit that has no meaning, but completes a sentence to make it grammatical.
Examples (English): # It is raining and # Does he know?
The impersonal 'it'
An objective or neutral tone is good news in academic writing. The impersonal 'it' can be used in order to take the focus off yourself (recommended!).
For example, a phrase such as 'I would argue that' could be replaced by 'It can be argued that...'
This signals that you are going to argue something. In this way it points forward in the text. By contrast see backward referring it. It also has the effect of reducing your personal profile (a positive thing) by avoiding the use of 'I'.

Recommendation: Learn a few of the following phrases to use at sentence and paragraph beginnings.
EXAMPLE 1

It can be argued that... It is important to recognize that... It is only to be expected that...
It is also worth noting that... It is likely that... It is possible that...
It is anticipated that... It is not clear whether... It is significant that...
It is assumed that... It is not surprising then, that... It is sometimes suggested that...
It is clear that... It is not surprising to find that… It is unlikely that...
It is difficult to see... It is not unreasonable to suggest that... It is worth pointing out that...
It is essential, therefore, that... It is not, however, simply a matter of... It may seem surprising to say that…
It is evident that... It is noteworthy that... It seems that...
It is for this reason that... It is now clear that... It would seem clear that...
It is important to note that... It is often argued that...
EXAMPLE 2

It was impossible now to conceive of a great power that was not a great economy.
Thus it was easy for the leaders to dominate the organization.
It was the arrival of Lenin, which changed everything in Russia.
It was also difficult politically, when the new parties refused to cooperate with the old governments.
It would seem clear that the traditional lecture/tutorial methods would not be able to cope easily with the demand unless there was a large increase in numbers of academic staff.

Gap-fill exercise

My favourite time of the year in Victoria is the summer. Right now, … July, and … flowers everywhere. … hot enough to wear shorts all the time, but not too hot. Downtown, … hundreds of tourists, but if you don't like crowds, … easy to get away. …. a beautiful park called Beaconhill Park on the seashore, and … only about half a mile from downtown. From the park, … a lovely view out to sea, and sometimes … whales passing by.


1 ________ two birds sitting in that tree.
It is
There is
# There are

2 ________ five miles from the station to my house.
It is
There is
# There are

3 How long did ________ take you to do your homework?
# it
there

4 ________ any ice cream in the fridge?
Is it
It is
# Is there
There is

5 Somebody ate my apple! Who was ________?
# it
there

6 They cancelled the soccer match because ________ snowing.
it was
# there was
there were

7 How many pages ________ in your grammar book?
it is
is it
there are
# are there

8 This is crazy! ________ August, and the weather is still cold!
# It's
Its
There is
There's

9 Don't cry! ________ no reason to be sad.
It is
# there is
there are

10 Who is that guy? ________ the movie star, Tom Hanks?
# Isn't it
Isn't there
Aren't there