On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> There entered a man.
> There appeared a new star on the horizon.
> There came no answer to his question. (cf. "...but answer came there none")
Perhaps "there" is a special subject, or null subject, like
"it".
>
> Also, note that "there" and "be" can be separated from each other by intervening
> material, as in raising constructions:
>
> There seems (to Carlo) [ to be a butterfly on the table ]
>
> These suggest to me that "there" and "be" do not form a single unit comparable to
> "hay" in Spanish.
Agreed.
Padraic.
> Matt.