Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2021 July 13

Language desk
< July 12	<< Jun | July | Aug >>	July 14 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 13

What does "there" refer to?

• Lawyer: He was found covered in the victim's blood. The murder weapon belongs to him and it's got his fingerprints all over it.
• Ed Warren: Nobody's disputing any of that. Arne knows that he's going to prison. All we're saying is that there were mitigating circumstances.

What does "there" refer to? Rizosome (talk) 14:59, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

@Rizosome: It's part of an existential clause. Warren is saying that mitigating circumstances exist, so that (presumably) whatever prison sentence Arne is getting should be reduced. There isn't being used to talk about a physical location. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 15:25, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Yes, it's a dummy pronoun. --174.94.31.124 (talk) 21:48, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

Well, you would find some disagreement as to that within the domain of generative grammar: [1]. Snow ^{let's rap} 02:02, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

To really confuse the OP, we could cite Dorothy Parker's quote about Oakland: "There is no there there." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:40, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Who? --174.94.31.124 (talk) 05:46, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

See also Syntactic expletive. -- AnonMoos (talk) 06:42, 15 July 2021 (UTC)