🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul29.065507.16352@leland.Stanford.EDU>
richwing@leland.Stanford.EDU (Rich Wingerter) writes:

[re "there is" followed by a list of singular NPs]
>It seems to me like this arises from a logistics problem in turning thought
>into language.  You have to determine whether to use "is" or "are" before you
>have sometimes decided whether there is going to be one or more items in the
>complement.  People tend to start with "There is...", but if they tack on an
>extra element with "and", it's too late (in speech, anyway) to go back and
>correct it.

This is not logistics but psycholinguistics, and perhaps you can use some
of the results in that field to put some meat on that idea. On the other
hand, it might be pure speculation about how our minds construct sentences.
I prefer your other point:

>Also, it looks to me like there may be an ambiguity in how people think about
>phrases like "anger and frustration".  Perhaps this is one feeling that has
>multiple aspects.  If it is one feeling, then "There is" is the logical
>preface.

I feel happier with this, because "are" changes the scope for me, I think.
As far as I am able to introspect, "there are anger and frustration"
implies each person is both angry and frustrated. "There is" carries the
meaning that J is angry but not necessarily frustrated. I feel that using
"are" almost induces personification: "There are Anger and Frustration"
here tonight. All in all I don't much like "are" after "there" in this
existential use.

I also avoid "there are" in a demonstrative use, and "there
is" I guess, opting for "there's" in most cases.

	(Pointing)There's three buses coming.
	Here's three buses coming.
	*Here is three buses coming.
	(T)here are three buses coming.

And in Sarajevo, (pronounced with a voiced fricative for 'j' by some
Californian newsreaders) "there's anger and frustration" similarly
avoids making the decision about plurality all together. ;-)


-- 
James M. Scobbie: Dept of Linguistics, Stanford University, CA 94305-2150, USA
                  scobbie@csli.stanford.edu