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Re: Odd construct

From:Robert Hailman <robert@...>
Date:Friday, October 12, 2001, 2:22
Matthew Kehrt wrote:
> > The problem with that idea, I think, is that be is conjugated to agree > with the object, if that were true. That is, one says, where I live, > > There ARE butterflies. > > but, > > There IS a butterfly. > > So, there does not seem to be the subject. > -M
Hmm. In my dialect (or idiolect, as the case may be), one can say one of the two you've mentioned up there, but also There'S butterflies. but not, *There IS butterflies. or *There ARE a butterfly. So that might complicate things somewhat. I'd be tempted to say that it's, as I think have been mentioned, a throwback to English's days as a verb-second language - just some strange word-order quirk. "There's butterflies." could just be some dialectical mumbo-jumbo. -- Robert