The following question was posed by Hong Kong-based Forum member Hairstyler:
“How does the word ‘there’ function in the following sentence structure: ‘There +verb (‘live,’ ‘exist,’ ‘remain,’ ‘come,’ ‘arise,’ ‘appear,’ ‘enter’) + noun’?”
I explained to Hairstyler that in the above sentence structure, “there” functions either as an
adverb or as an
expletive depending on the particular verb used. An adverb is, of course, a word that typically serves as a modifier of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, while an expletive is an
anticipatory word that, for emphasis, is made to occupy the position of the verb’s subject or object in the normal English word order.
IMAGE CREDIT: THOUGHTCO.COMAs an adverb, “there” functions in the sense of (a) “in or at that place,” (b) “to or at that place,” (c) “at that point or stage,” or (d) “in that matter, respect, or relation.” For instance, in the normal-order sentence “The king lives
there,” the word “there” is an adverb in the sense of “in that place,” and the same is true when the sentence “
There lives the king” is construed as the inverted form of that normal-order sentence.
On the other hand, when that inverted form of the sentence is expressed
interjectionally as “
There lives the king!”—take note of the exclamation mark—“there” still works as an adverb, but that statement can now be understood as an expression of satisfaction or relief that the king is still alive after all.
Now, in contrast, “there” functions as an expletive—the so-called anticipatory “there”—in this sentence: “
There exists a monster that feeds on newborns.” In this particular construction, “there” works in about the same way as the expletive “it” in “
It was a cold night when the baby was born.”
One distinguishing characteristic of the expletive “there” is that it can generally be dropped to make the sentence more concise. Thus, “
There exists a monster that feeds on newborns” can be reduced to “A monster feeds on newborns,” but the intended emphasis vanishes from the statement.
After my explanation, Hairstyler presented the following sentences and asked if they are inverted sentences and are correctly constructed:
(1) “Long, long ago,
there lived near the sea an old fisherman and his wife.”
(2) “
There stood a tall tree on the top of the hill.”
(3) “
There followed an uncomfortable silence.”
Yes, I told Hairstyler, all those three sentences are grammatically correct inverted expletive-“there” sentences. Proof of this is that “there” can be taken out from them to render them in the normal word order:
(1) “An old fisherman and his wife lived near the sea long, long ago.”
(2) “A tall tree stood on the top of the hill.”
(3) “An uncomfortable silence followed.”
By now, it should be clear that the use of the expletive “there” is designed to emphasize the verb in a sentence, allowing for the positioning of the verb where it can do its work most forcefully. This accounts for the much greater emotional power of the inverted sentence “Long, long ago,
there lived an old fisherman and his wife” compared to that of its normal sentence-structure equivalent, “An old fisherman and his wife
lived near the sea long, long ago.”
Keep in mind, though, that using the expletive-“there” is just one of several ways of inverting a sentence to heighten its emotional power. Another way of doing it is by putting the complement of the sentence up front.
Take this matter-of-fact sentence in the normal word order: “He left his friends in a huff because
his anger was so intense.” Now feel how its inverted-sentence equivalent greatly heightens its emotional tug: “
So intense was his anger that he left his friends in a huff.”
This essay, 772nd in the series, first appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the December 31, 2011 issue of The Manila Times
, © 2011 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
