Re: Odd construct
| From: | Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, October 11, 2001, 0:33 |
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Matthew Kehrt wrote:
>
> Hey, all, a question.
>
> If I say spomething along the lines of "There are butterflies", what is
> the subject of the sentence? I've heard it has none. How does this
> work?
Well, in English, "There" is often treated as the subject, which is why
one will often hear "There's butterflies", or, in some dialects "It's
butterflies". Historically, "butterflies" was the subject, the order
being from the verb-second order that Old English used, and of which
Modern English has vestiges.
--
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