GRAMMAR IT vs, THERE (the ‘ei There is no suggestion forthe project that | ike eee es ry (4) Itis her back that needs surgery, not her arm. The more one looks at these examples, the more puzzled one seems to become. This is because there seems to be no I, there seems to be no apparent pattern oF usage in this Set of Inde! rhyme or reason in the use of “there” and * ‘examples, Let us try and establish a fewirules and then go back to our sentences. It is muddy on the street. (There is mud on the street The first rule students should remember in connection with dummy subjects i ‘combined with an adjective whereas ‘there’ is followed by an (indefinite) noun. Consis that normally existential ‘itis lr the examples below and remember this rule Tris muddy on the street. | There is mud on the street Itis foggy today There is fog outside, Itis glorious outside There is glory to be gained from her actions Itis nice and quiet all ‘There was peace and quiet all around around Itisnaughty of youto | There was naugh © noun after “it” with an existential meaning: So, remember never to There isa eat onthe | But not “Ivis a eat on the mat. mat. There is a book on the table * This a book on the table, Towing tis = te star iicates that the vent grammatically incorrect This rule practically tells us something very important about the examples we have listed atthe beginning of this section, It tells us that all those sentences where ‘it’ followed by a noun are not in fact ex it” sentences, sxample (4) contains the so-called emphatic ‘it’. What is the difference between existential ‘t' and lation is a good test: only the existential “it” sentence can be translated by a sentence beginning For instance, emphatic it"? Tra with the verb ‘afi street = este noroi pe strad (7) Inis muddy on 1 Rhett este cel care are nevoie (8) Ih is Rhett who needs to be kissed ruta‘The translation for (8) shows you that this sentence lays emphasis on a certain element, in this ease “Rhett”. On the ‘other hand, the example under (7) introduces senew object property in-the world of our discourse, and thus has an existential meaning. Iris high time... /There is enough time.. How do we account for these two constructions? We have just stated that existential ‘i’ should never be followed by noun, Well, then, how about the sentence under (5)? This isan instance of idiomatic use. There is practically no accounting for it, Students are advised to lear these examples by heart: ions with Tdioms with ‘there™ Ts no secret that mother Hikes | Pim sony, but there’s no pearls, alternative/ehoiee but to tell her the It’s no surprise/wonder that he | uth. knows English so well “There's no denying that he is Ws no use/good teling me | handsome. now. ‘There's no need to tll me your It was no coincidencesaccident | secre. that they met inthe station. | There's no question of going to the twas about time forber‘o | concer tonight. ‘admit her mistake ‘There's no chance of finding a cure Its three mileskilometers to | for cancer in the near future the next village ‘There's no doubt that she enjoys Itis (five) years/an eternity | dancing since they frst met inthe “There's no telling what she‘ do station when she finds out As you can notice, the ‘there's no..." patter is very productive. ‘There isa cat on the mat. / Oh, there's the eat next door, we can use it in our movie, ‘There is one last remark to be made. This concerns the so called “indefiniteness effect’ rule. What is this rule about? It states that dummy “hore should be followed by am indeftate noun onty. Consider the following table For this rule: ‘There is a eat on the mat. But not: * There is the eat on the mat ‘There isa girl in the room, * There is the girl in the room, However, there are eases when this rule is not observed, as you could see in example (2). This example is possible ‘when swe want to introduce a new object in our discourse about which there exists some previous knowledge, Generally the definite noun must be followed by further modification for the Sentence to be correct. Consider also the ‘examples under (9) and (10) and notice the underlined modifiers attached to the definite noun: (9) Alternatively, there is the ehoie (10) ...And then there is the question of who is going to pay. Nota bene! Don’t forget that dummy “there” is not combined only with the indicative. It can appear in the vieinity of participles ‘or infinitives in formal English (11) here being nothing left to say, Susan left the room enraged, (12) Iris desirable for there to be atleast two sets of examples in your dissertation,EXERCISES: 1. Use the most logial form of the verbs between brackets: 8) It (be) just this that gave me my perspective for finding her there ') There (be) wo men and one doy in that room, ©) There (be) one doy and two men in that room. 4) What you need and what you get (be) your problem, ©) What you need and what you get (be) two different things, 1) He liked her. There (be) some talk of her marrying William Banks onee, but nothing had come oft 2. Fill in the gaps with a suitable variant of iivare or there is/are: 8) __aman atthe door, waiting to see you. b) a good idea to sleep after a heavy meal. ©) _— every reason to believe that he isa thief. 4d) a fact that most men are larger and heavier than most women. ©) __acconcert at the Festival Hall tomorrow evening. {ho sense in waiting for her: she’s always late, 2) __ often believed that the English are resery hh) I who cannot bear these hateful words. i) time you left this place. J) enough time for you to wash your hair, Kk) fog outside; don't zo out 1) windy outside; please, stay indoors. m) _ time you confessed your erime, you know! 1n) alot of smoke in this place, I ean"t stay here, (0) ___ along way to London! 1p) ___ sunny outside and the birds are chirping. 4) two books and one chair in the room upstairs. 1) so much mud outside that we won't be able to walk to church, 3) awhile since we last met 1) accat that ate our canary, despite what you might think. u) so stuffy in here! How can you bear it? y) ___no room for you in my plans, I'm sorry! 3. Fill in the blanks with either if or there: Toni thought ___ was probably better to be a little vague about the interview until was ov was no ‘guarantee that she would get that job, anyway. Miss Black had been careful to point out that __would be other applicants; and then ‘was this Managing Director, Mr. Lawrenee, who sounded rather a brute. “Not an easy man to satisfy,” Miss Black had said, and Toni knew from experience what that meant. ‘meant that he was a perfectionist and ‘was hardly any doubt that he was a slavedriver as well. But she didn't suppose ‘was him she would be working for. ‘was doubtless that he had his own personal secretary, with years of faithful service behind her. ‘being ne choice in the matter, she would try to make the best of i