Depending on the verb used, “there” can function as an adverb or as an expletive in this sentence structure:
There + live (exist, remain, come, arise, appear, enter) + noun.“There” as adverb As an adverb, “there” works in the sense of (a) “in or at that place,” (b) “to or at that place,” (c) “at that point or stage,” (d) “in that matter, respect, or relation,” or (e) “interjectionally expressing satisfaction, approval, encouragement or sympathy, or defiance.”
For instance, the sentence “
There lives the king” can be construed as the inverted form of the sentence “The King lives
there,” with “there” working in the sense of “in or in that place.” When expressed interjectionally as “There
lives the king!”, however, that sentence becomes an expression of satisfaction that the king is still alive after fears that he had died.
The sentence “
There appears the king” or “There
remains the king” can similarly be construed to be the inverted form of “The king appears
there” or “The king remains
there.” However, take note that we can’t use the verb “come” for that sentence structure, we need to replace it with the verb “go” to form the inverted sentence “There
goes the king” and its normal structure “The king goes
there.”
The expletive or anticipatory “there”In contrast, in the sentence “
There exists a monster that feeds on newly borns,” “there” works as the expletive “there” or the so-called anticipatory “there.” In this expletive sense, “there” occupies the position of the subject or object of a verb in normal English word order and anticipates a subsequent word or phrase that supplies the needed meaningful content (this definition is from the
Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary). It works in much the same way as the expletive “it” in this sentence: “
It was a cold night when the baby was born.” Note that in expletive “there” sentences, “there” generally can be dropped to make the sentence more concise; in particular, the sentence “
There exists a monster that feeds on newly borns” can be reduced to “A monster feeds on newly borns.” (The intended emphasis or drama vanishes in this “there”-less version, though.)
In the sentence “
There remains the matter of the king’s vindictiveness,” “there” also works as an expletive rather than as an adverb; so with “there” in the sentence “
There appears to be a conspiracy against the king” and “
There arises a conspiracy against the king.” Note that the sentence “
There remains the matter of the king’s vindictiveness” can be restructured into “The matter of the king’s vindictiveness
remains” and “
There arises a conspiracy against the king” can be restructured into “A conspiracy against the king
arises.” However, this restructuring can’t be done in the case of “There appears to be a conspiracy against the king”; the construction “A conspiracy against the king
appears” is semantically dysfunctional. We need to be extra sensitive to the sense of the specific verb used in “there” sentences.
(For more on the usage of the expletive “there,” check out
“The often-derided expletive ‘there’ can sometimes be put to good use” in My Media English Watch.)
We can see from the above examples of “there” usage that how the word “there” works—whether as an adverb or as an expletive—depends on the particular verb used and on how the sentence is constructed or punctuated.