The There Transformation

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The There Transformation

• Ed McCorduck
• English 402--Grammar
• SUNY Cortland
• http//mccorduck.cortland.edu

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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 er there.

English 402 Grammar
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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
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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
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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
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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 subjectas is normally the case for the first
  element of a sentenceand treat there as a
  generalized indefinite pronoun, and thus not
  countable and therefore singular

English 402 Grammar
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slide 7 subject-verb agreement with sentences
with initial adverbial there

• standard There are the traitors.
• adverb
  plural
• standard There is/Theres the traitor.
• adverb adverb
  singular
• ungrammatical There is/Theres the traitors.
• adverb adverb
  plural

English 402 Grammar
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slide 8 subject-verb agreement in sentences
with expletivethere

• standard There are traitors
  among us.
• expletive
  plural
• standard There is/Theres a
  traitor among us.
• expletive
  expletive singular
• non-standard Theres traitors
  among us.
• (prescriptively incorrect) expletive plural

English 402 Grammar
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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
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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/Theres a fire in the
  barn.

English 402 Grammar
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slide 11 more examples of the application of
the there transformation to Pattern I sentences

• Pattern I sentence Blood will be in
  the streets.
• aux MV
• ?
• application of there
• transformation There will be blood in the
  streets.
• Pattern I sentence A change has been
  in the works.
• aux MV
• ?
• application of there
• transformation There has/Theres been
  a change in the works.

English 402 Grammar
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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
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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
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slide 14 example of the application of the
there transformation to a Pattern VII sentence

• Pattern VII sentence
• Enraged clients will be chasing you.
• subj MV (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
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slide 15 Reed-Kellogg diagrams of sentences with
expletive there
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
English 402 Grammar
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slide 16 example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of an
existential there sentence
English 402 Grammar
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slide 17 example of a Reed-Kellogg diagram of an
initial adverbial there
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

• 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