Основы теории английского языка. Листунова Е.И. - 102 стр.

       4. With the meaning of a demonstrative it:
       It was a little lattice window, about five feet and a half above the
ground... (Dickens). Is it Jude? Yes it isl (Hardy). It was a cold, cheer-
less room... (Dodge).

                       The Construction There is

       When the subject of the sentence is indefinite (a book, books,
some books), it is often placed after the predicate verb and the sen-
tence begins with the introductory particle there. The word there (for-
merly the adverb of place there) has no stress. It has lost its local
meaning, which is shown by the possibility of combining it in the
sentence with the adverbs of place here and there:
       ...There was a gate just there, opening into the meadow... (Bron-
te). There’s a good spot over there (Cusack).
       Sentences with the introductory there may serve to assert or deny
the existence of something. In sentences with the introductory there the
predicate verb is usially the verb to be: occasionally some other verbs are
found, such as to live, to occur, to come, etc., which, similarly to the verb
to be, indicate to exist or have the meaning of to come into existence:
       There was a little pause (Voynich) (there — an introductory par-
ticle; was — a simple verbal predicate; a pause — the subject; little — an
attribute). ...There is the rustle of branches in the morning breeze; there
is the music of a sunny shower against the window; there is the matin
song of birds (Gissing). There is only one cloud in the sky... (Bronte).
There sounds the laugh of a woodpecker (äÿòåë) from the copse in
younder hollow (Gissing). There came a laugh, high, gay sweet (Galswor-
thy). ...There came a scent of lime-blossom (Galsworthy). There soon
appeared, pausing in the dark doorway as he entered, a hale, grey-
haired old man (Dickens). Once upon a time, in a very small country
town... there lived alittle man named Nathaniel Pi pkins (Dickens).
       Note. — Negative constructions are formed as follows:
       a) There are not any mistakes in your dictation (There aren’t
any mistakes...);
       b) There are no mistakes in your dictation. There were no trees,
ne bushes, nothing but a grey sea of moss... (London).




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