Re: Odd construct

En réponse à Matthew Kehrt <matrix14@...>:

> 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?
>
I think that historically, "butterflies" is the subject (which explains the
agreement of the verb). But nowadays I think you here more and more sentences
like "there's butterflies", so I guess you can take "there" as subject, or even
consider that the whole is an impersonal sentence (like in French "il y a"
corresponding to "there is", but this expression is invariable and the "il"
seems to correspond to the "il" of sentences like "il pleut": "it rains", i.e.
impersonal).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

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