On the genesis of there-constructions

Abstract

The most conspicuous property of the existential sentence (abbreviated as ES) is that the particular lexical item there occurs as an expletive subject. In order to account for this property, we investigate how children learn various there constructions, including ES. We propose that there is introduced into English ES through a reanalysis process which reanalyzes the deictic adverb there as an expletive subject. The reanalysis hypothesis involves the proposal that ontological ES and locational ES with a locative adverbial in end position constitute a prototype (or central) ES, which occurs first in the sequence of acquisition of ES. © 1991, Department of Mathematics, Tokyo Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.