Expletive (there and it)

Expletive (there and it)

The word expletive refers to it or there being used as a filler:
It is certain that the temperature is too high.
There are many new projects.
Here, there and it do not refer to anything or mean anything. They just fill the place of the subjects to make the sentences complete, i.e. is certain that the temperature is too high and are many new projects are not complete sentences. The key points to note:
An expletive may fill the place of the subject:
It is the tool I need.
There was a dark spot on the screen.
It and there precede the verbs while the real subjects (tool and spot) come after the verbs (false subject/anticipatory subject).
Subject and verb agreement: There is not the real subject of the verb. The verb must agree in number with the real subject that follows there.
There are three hammers in the box.
There is only one hammer with a broken handle.
Is there enough water for us to use?
Were there many doctors on duty?
Was there many people at the fair?
There are also ideas that can be expressed only by sentences with expletives. The following sentences cannot be written in another way without affecting the meaning.
There once lived a very wise man.
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. 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 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 urgent questions remain.
b. There remain several urgent 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.
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 urgent 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 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.

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 "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.