Re: "There can be"

Edwin Chen wrote:
>I chose a somewhat bad example, I think: yep indeed, the first 'there'
>is usually just thought of as an 'empty' expletive/pleonastic pronoun,
>not some sort of locative.
>
>However, skimming through the paper again, it looks like Freeze does
>argue that 'there' is a locative.
Locative, but not deictic-- that would be the 2d "there ~here" in: 'there's
a mouse _there/here_'.
I suppose it could also be deictic (but with stress, different intonation)
in "_There's_ a mouse" (pointing), and in this case I don't think you could
have a second locational modifier-- *_There's_ a mouse on the cheese'.

Thanks for sending the pdf, by the way. Very interesting albeit
jargon-ridden :-((((

I was pleased to see him mention the relationship between "have" and "be"--
IIRC this was first discussed by Chas. Fillmore, which Freeze has in his
biblio.

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