Transcript There*s no *there* there.
“There’s no ‘there’ there.”
Is “there” a noun or an adverb?
Laura Blumenthal
Douglas College
Adverb
Adverbial usages = at that place, to that place, usually at the end of a sentence or clause: O O They have a laundromat there.
and a café Don’t go there!
Pronoun
If it’s a pronoun, why doesn’t the verb agree with it, or why doesn’t it change forms? O O There is a man; there are two women.
This is a man; these are two women. The form of the pronoun must change.
Pronoun
If it’s a pronoun, why doesn’t the verb agree with it, or why doesn’t it change forms? It works like “what”: O What is the answer? O What are the reasons?
Which is more frequent?
O O Pronoun: 47 Adverb: 3 O Source: lextutor.ca
Typical student errors
O O “They went to there” “It was a place where were many people.” WHY?
Interference from L1
Interference from L1
“There is a library there.” (Translate into a language you know.)
Interference from L1
Spanish
: Hay
French
: Il y a
down there.
una biblioteca une
ahí
. = It has a library there.
bibliothèque
là-bas
. = It has there a library German
: Es gibt
there.
Turkish
: Şurada
eine Bibliothek kütüphane
var dort
. = It gives a library . = At there library exists.
Japanese:
Asokoni
toshokan-ga library (nominative) exists.
Mandarin: library.
Nàlǐ yǒu arimasu
. = That place-in yīgè túshūguǎn. = That place there is a Korean: Do suh guan
en jugi
Arabic:
Tuwjad
maktaba e yo. = Library is at place.
hunak
= There is library there.
Resources
Resources
A. Learners’ dictionaries
Resources
A. Learners’ dictionaries
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
, 7 th Edition (2005)
A. Learners’ dictionaries
Resources
•
Oxford ESL Dictionary
(2004) •
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
, Advanced, 5 th Edition (2009)
Resources
B. Grammar textbooks for learners
Resources
B. Grammar textbooks for learners
Resources
C. Websites
Resources
C. Website – jackpot!
There is a glass there
, where the first
there
is a pronoun (the so-called 'existential
there
') and the other
there
adverb.
– is an FumbleFingersNov 20 '13 at 4:11 http://english.stackexchange.com/question s/138413/how-to-know-what-part-of speech-is-there-in-some-cases
Resources
D. Grammar textbooks for teachers 1) Parrott, M. (2010)
Grammar for English Language Teachers
(2 nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2) Celce-Murcia, M. (1983)
The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course
. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Resources
D. Grammar textbooks for teachers • “there is/are” – explained as “dummy”subject • confusion with the other there – not mentioned in Parrott • “non-referential” - contrasted in Celce-Murcia
Concordance worksheet
Your task: O Identify the different types of usages.
O Decide with your partner what to call each different type.
(50-instance Brown concordance, on lextutor.ca)
Concordance worksheet My results: Adverb: 3 there is (in various tenses + negative) O O O O O O O O O there is: 10 there are: 5 there was: 7 there wasn’t: 1 there were: 2 there has been: 5 there has not been: 1 there will be: 2 there’s not: 1 NOTE: there [BE] no 11!
variations on there is: 22 O + adverb O O there also is there certainly was not O O Hedging O there may be O O O O there seemed to be there should be Should there be …?
there would be Other: O there existed
Implications (for teaching) Teach both – contrast them.
RE introduce “there” = pronoun, when introducing O O a
structure
that it goes with, or a
function
such as hedging
Implications (for teaching) Include it in exercises about O O
modals
(there will be, there would be),
past tense modals
(there could have been, there must have been) O
hedging
(there seems to be, there are evidently, there could be, there is evidence of)
Implications (for teaching) Don’t forget
question formation
: O O O O O Will there be? Would there be? Could there have been? Does there seem to be [hard!]? Are there evidently [awkward]?
Thank you!
With special thanks to my language support: O O O O O Yoriko Gillard Haisen (Edwin) Zhang Eun-Yu (David) Kim Huda Al-Tayar Amal Ayyash
Laura Blumenthal