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Chapter 12 Expletive Pronouns Hardegree, Compositional Semantics, Chapter 12: Expletive Pronouns 1 of 36 Chapter 12 Expletive Pronouns 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 2. Overview ........................................................................................................................... 2 3. Expletive-There .................................................................................................................. 2 4. Fundamental Proposal: Expletive-There is an Anaphoric Pronoun ..................................... 3 5. How do we Read ‘be’ in ‘There be’? ................................................................................. 3 6. What is the Point of There? ................................................................................................ 6 7. Looney Examples of Topic-Comment ............................................................................... 7 8. Junction-Simplification Revisited ...................................................................................... 7 9. Other Anaphoric Uses of There.......................................................................................... 8 10. Relative-There ................................................................................................................... 9 11. Expletive-it ......................................................................................................................... 9 12. "It" is Raining .................................................................................................................. 12 13. Let It, Let There, Let Us ................................................................................................... 13 14. Reconsidering Eventive-It ................................................................................................ 14 15. Infinitive-Phrases ............................................................................................................. 16 16. For + Infinitive-Clauses ................................................................................................... 18 17. Cleft Sentences ................................................................................................................ 18 18. Interrogative-Pronouns .................................................................................................... 21 19. Complementary-Pronouns................................................................................................ 22 20. Interrogative-Whether...................................................................................................... 23 21. Wh-Questions containing ‘there be’ ................................................................................. 23 22. Cleft-Sentences Using There ............................................................................................ 24 23. Combining there with Definite Determiners .................................................................... 25 24. Combining there with Other Verbs .................................................................................. 25 25. Topic-Comment Revisited ............................................................................................... 26 26. Inclusive-Be ..................................................................................................................... 28 27. Reconsidering Eventive-It … Again! ............................................................................... 30 28. One Last Nagging Problem with Topic-Comment ........................................................... 31 A. Summary ................................................................................................................................. 32 1. Expletives ........................................................................................................................ 32 2. Fundamental Proposal – Anaphoric Pronouns .................................................................. 32 3. Topic-Comment ............................................................................................................... 32 4. Junction-Simplification .................................................................................................... 32 5. Generalized Conditional (Restriction) Operator ............................................................... 33 6. Presupposition ................................................................................................................. 33 7. Kinds of Entities .............................................................................................................. 33 8. Propositions and Complementizer Phrases ....................................................................... 33 9. Relative-There ................................................................................................................. 33 10. Propositional-It ................................................................................................................ 33 11. Events ............................................................................................................................. 34 12. Cleft Constructions .......................................................................................................... 34 13. Wh-Pronouns and Wh-Clauses ........................................................................................ 34 14. Interpretations of ‘Be’ ...................................................................................................... 34 15. Example Analyses............................................................................................................ 35 Hardegree, Compositional Semantics, Chapter 12: Expletive Pronouns 2 of 36 1. Introduction An expletive is, by definition, a word or phrase that plays a syntactic role, but is semantically empty. The most common words that behave this way are ‘there’ and ‘it’, which are often called expletive-pronouns. Perhaps the most memorable examples of expletive-it occur in the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities.1 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair... In the next paragraph of TOTC, we find two occurrences of expletive-there, and another occurrence of expletive-it. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. Finally, at the very end of the story, we find two more occurrences of expletive-it. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. 2. Overview In the present chapter, we examine the semantics of ‘there’ and ‘it’ in their expletive guises. We propose to treat them both as anaphoric-pronouns, which function syntactically as subjects, and which anticipate their antecedents, which come in a variety of syntactic forms. Our chief claim is that expletive-pronouns mark topic (versus comment), which we take to involve presupposition, which our semantics for junctions neatly captures. We primarily consider expletive constructions involving ‘be’, although we briefly consider other verbs. We consider four readings of ‘be’ – existential-be, transitive- be, copular-be, and inclusive-be. We show that inclusive-be is best suited semantically to sustain the topic-comment distinction. 3. Expletive-There We begin with expletive-there.2 We first note that ‘there’ is usually coupled with a form of ‘be’, as in the examples above. But other verbs are occasionally used, as in the following well-known literary example.3 When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. There are indeed surprisingly many verbs that combine with ‘there’, although ‘be’ is by far the most common.4 We concentrate on ‘there be’. We next note that ‘there be’ is often paired with a determiner-phrase, as in the following examples, which include singular-nouns, plural nouns, and count-nouns.5 1 Charles Dickens (1859). Also note that these sentences are examples of the literary/rhetorical device known as anaphora, which Dickens uses to reiterate the central motif of the story, which is doubles. 2 ‘There’ is also commonly used as a locative demonstrative, as in ‘over there’. Some sentences we consider can plausibly be read treating ‘there’ in this manner, but we disregard these readings. 3 From the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, anonymously published in the Sentinel (Troy, NY, 1823), later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, still later attributed to Henry Livingston Jr. 4 For example, James McCawley (1998) writes: there are a fairly large number of verbs (some two-hundred) that allow there-insertion, notwithstanding a surprisingly widespread belief among linguists that only a few verbs allow it. Unfortunately, he does not list these verbs. 5 Note that the comparative terms – ‘more’, ‘fewer’, ‘less’ – embed in a ‘than’ construction. Hardegree, Compositional Semantics, Chapter 12: Expletive Pronouns 3 of 36 a, some, no,
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