Simple Sentences with

Nonreferential it or
there Subjects

Jett Majay R. Hernandez

Nonreferential “it” occurs in a number of simple
statements and questions in English dealing with weather, temperature,
time, distance and other environmental features

• It’s cold.
• It’s 30º
• It’s November 16th.
• It’s Wednesday.
• It’s 200 miles to Fresno.
Nonreferential “there”
• Locative
-There used to be a tree behind the garage.
-There are several books on the table.
• Existential
– There is a God.
– There are mitigating circumstances.

• State of Event
– There are several documents missing.
– There have been three people killed.
In yes-no questions and tag questions, they undergo
subject/auxiliary inversion
• It’s a nice day. Isn’t it?
• There’s a book on the table, isn’t there?

Although the “it” and “there” subjects in these sentences

express no referential meaning, we know that these same words
can have a referential function.
• Where’s the book? * It’s on the table.
• Let’s go out in the garden. It’s cooler there.
An Introduction to
Conjunction
Coordinating Conjunctions
• AND
Joe studies law, Bill sells furniture, and John writes novels.

s s
conj s

and
Joe pres study law Bill pres sell furniture
John pres write novel
I do too/ I don’t either and so do I/neither do I
Uninverted Inverted
Affirmative I doo too So do I
Negative I don’t either Neither do I

Examples:
I play first base and he does too.
I don’t play first base and he doesn’t either.
I play first base and so does he.
I don’t play first base and neither does he.
More on Conjoined
Sentences
Correlative Conjunction
• It emphasizes the coordinate status of the two constituents
Example: John and Ellen study law Both John and Ellen study law.

Correlative Movement
• It allows to produce a paraphrase of the second sentence above by moving the
correlative conjunction to a position preceding the restructured verb phrase:
Example: John and Ellen both study law.
When it is the two VPs which are conjoined, we can have a sentence with correlative
addition such as:
John studies both law and business.

Respectively
This is to disambiguate by indicating which constituent goes with which.
Sam received an A and Harry received a B.

Sam and Harry received an A and a B respectively.

Reciprocal Pronouns
Example: each other, one another
- Jake and Bill admire each other

- Sylvia’s and Jane’s views are similar to each other

- Sylvia’s and Jane’s views are similar. (deletion of pronoun to avoid semantic
redundancy)
Logical Connectors
Logical Connectors

- words or phrases whose function is to show some logical relationship

between two or more basic sentences or in some cases between basic
sentence and a noun phrase.
- have primarily a semantic, cohesive function which holds within or
between surface structure sentences (Halliday and Hasan, 1976)
Functional Classification of Logical Connectors

• Additive
• Adversative
• Causal
• Sequential
ADDITIVE- used to signal addition, introduction, to show similarity, etc.
1. Addition
a. Simple: additionally In addition (to this) Too

also
Further, furthermore
And
moreover
b. Emphatic: besides
as well (as this) Not only this but…
c. Intensifying: in fact actually as a matter of fact
indeed to tell (you) the truth
d. Alternative: or alternatively
on the other hand
2. Exemplification
a. To exemplify a representative member
such as for example for instance
as like
b. To exemplify the most important member
especially particularly notably
c. To introduce an ordinary group member
including
d. To introduce a specific example which comes in a separate sentence from preceding
general statement
for one thing by way of example
as an illustration to illustrate
3. Reference
-to introduce a topic
speaking about this
as for this
considering this
regarding this
4. Similarity
similarly in a like manner likewise
equally in the same way
5. Identification
that is namely specifically
6. Clarification
that is (to say) I mean in other words

ADVERSATIVE- used to signal conflict, contradiction, concession, etc.

1. Conflict/Contrast
butwhile however whereas in contrast
conversely
2. Concession
even so despite however (and)still
nevertheless nonetheless although though
3. Dismissal
a. Alternative Circumstances (either way, in either case, whichever
happens )
b. Universal Circumstances (whatever happens, in any case)
4. Replacement
a. to rectify a preceding item (at least, rather)
b. to substitute a positive statement for a negative one (instead)
CAUSAL- used to signal cause/effect and reason/result

1. Cause/Reason
being that seeing that due to in view of
since as owing to for
2. Effect/Result
so that so thus hence therefore as a result
for this reason
3. Purpose
so in hope that with this in mind
4. Condition
if in case provided that even if
as long as only if
SEQUENTIAL- used to signal a chronological or logical sequence

1. Chronological and Logical

a. Numerical
first, second… initially, secondly…
b. Beginning
at first to start with first of all
c. Continuation
previously afterwards eventually
subsequently next then
d. Conclusion
finally at last in the end
lastly to conclude
SEQUENTIAL- used to signal a chronological or logical sequence

1. Chronological and Logical

a. Numerical
first, second… initially, secondly…
b. Beginning
at first to start with first of all
c. Continuation
previously afterwards eventually
subsequently next then
d. Conclusion
finally at last in the end
lastly to conclude
Conditional Sentences
Conditional Sentences consist of two clauses and are therefore more
complex syntactically than many other structures.

 Future Conditional: If I have the money, I will take a vacation

 Present Conditional: If I had the money, I would take a vacation
 Past Conditional: If I had the money, I would have taken a vacation
A Semantic Overview of Conditional Sentences
 Generic Factual Conditional. It expresses relationships that are
true and unchanging
Example: If oil is mixed with water, it floats.
If you boil water, it vaporizes.
 Habitual Factual Conditional. Also express a relationship that is
not bounded in time; it is based on habit instead of physical law.
Example: If I wash dishes, Sally dries them.
If Nancy said, “jump!” Bob jumped.
 Future or Predictive Conditional Sentences express future plans
or contingencies.
Example: If it rains, I’ll stay home.
If you finish your assignment, I’m going to buy you an ice
cream.
 Imaginative Conditional Sentences
Example: If Joe had the time, he would go to Mexico.
 Firthian
Linguistics
 Firth saw language as a set of events which speakers
uttered, a mode of action, a way of doing things, and
therefore linguists should focus on speech events
themselves. This rejected the common view that
speech acts are only interesting for linguists to gain
access to “true” object of the study– their underlying
grammatical systems.
Firth’s Contextual Theory of Meaning or his theory of
“context situation”, a phrase which he borrowed from
Malinowski refers to mixing of language with the objects
physically present during conversation to ascertain the
meaning involved.
Firth proposes to use the term “semantics” to
describe his whole approach to language, which is to
link all levels of linguistic analysis (from phonetics to
lexicography) with their contexts and situations.
 adopts the attitude that pattern is to be asserted of verbal,
behavioral data within a context
 Expands the notion of context and meaning is expressed by
contextualization
 assumes that pattern is predicable of phonic data independently
of its relationship to context.
 two kinds of patterns are distinguished: grammar and phonology,
which are nonhierarchically related.
Firthian Position
-data taken from an individual person are valid (Firth 1957)
-such data may or may not be typical

Typical is predicated of patterns that are attributable to more than one

person but the same patterns are not necessarily attributable to all speakers
linked by a shared context of situation.
Phonology
lamb left
park right

CVCC is a phonological pattern, however, there is no automatic

universal interpretation of them (consonant and vowel)— this is
because of other existing languages.
Prosody
- the terms manifesting a C have the phonetic value of
palatalization or nonpalatalization
- the terms manifesting a V have the phonetic property of
frontness or backness (of the tongue)
- like structural and systematic categories, it doesn’t have
inherent content, and their interpretation must be explicitly stated
and related to the interpretation of the structure.
The prosody is associated with the system “tongue-front
articulation” or “tongue-back articulation”
Polysystemicity
- each category within a phonological structure is nonidentical
to every other. The repetition of C and V is not to be taken as
recurrence of identical categories (Allen (1951) and Firth (1957))
- it implies that phonematic units are not identifiable with units
of a system within a different structure.
Grammar
- successive structures of varying size-levels are delimited such
that smaller ones are included within the larger.
- grammatical patterning is complete when the prosodies,
structures, systems an their exponents are stated.
- it includes statements of individual units of systems associated
with the minimum elements of grammatical structure (Firth 1957)