Definition:
A structure in which the expletive there is added at the beginning of a sentence and the subject is moved to a position after a form of be. Also known as a "there-structure."
See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction."
(Winston Churchill) - "There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them."
(George Orwell) - "Many miles away there's a shadow on the door
Of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake."
(Sting, "Synchronicity II," 1983) - "Another method of changing word order to shift the stress is known as the there-transformation:
A stranger is standing on the porch.
This reordering puts the main stress on the subject by shifting its position. Remember that the normal subject position, the opening slot, is usually an unstressed valley in terms of the intonation pattern. This addition of there, like it in the it-cleft, is also known as an expletive; it delays the subject, thereby putting it in line for stress. . . .
There's a stranger standing on the porch.
No concert tickets were available this morning.
There were no concert tickets available this morning.
"This use of 'there is' is sometimes referred to as 'the existential there'; in other words, the use of 'there is something' affirms that the something is, or exists."
(Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical Effects, 5th ed. Pearson, 2007) - "A there-structure is commonly used in English to express events, happenings, and states of affairs in a schematic way, without the intervention of participants. Frequently, the noun is a nominalisation of a verbal process:
- There was a fight.
- There was an abrupt knock at the door.
(Angela Downing, English Grammar: A University Course, 2nd ed. Routledge, 2006)
