How do you explain the usage of "it" in the sentences below?

Question

Could you explain the usage of it in the following sentences?

I don't like it when you speak like this.
I hate it when you speak like this.
I know it for certain that he is in town now.
He owes it to his brother that he became a research chemist.

ok. why? in my book there is "it" in the second one. and why do we need "it" in other sentences? — sofyaorel, Oct 20 '18 at 21:27
This is the so-called "dummy it". In certain situations it is necessary because that's how English grammar works. You can't omit certainl things that you can omit in other grammars. Like, in Russian you can just say "Темнеет" or "На улице мороз", but in English you have to say "It is getting dark" or "It is cold outside" instead. That's the same dummy it. It's called dummy precisely because it doesn't really refer to anything, its purpose is syntactical, not sematic. That said, in your example 2 the dummy it is optional, and in example 1 it can be optional depending on what comes after. — RegDwigнt, Oct 20 '18 at 21:27
See Dummy pronoun on Wikipedia, or check out "What does it refer to in it's raining?" — RegDwigнt, Oct 20 '18 at 21:28
@RegDwigнt This is completely diffeent from weather-it though!! See below in about 20 mins ... — Araucaria - Him, Oct 20 '18 at 21:31
@Robusto C'mon lad. Read the comment above!!! This is NOT weather it. — Araucaria - Him, Oct 20 '18 at 21:36
@Araucaria Sure, take it from here, if you feel like it, I am obviously providing a simplified explanation tailored to just one person, rather than an actual answer for the site as a whole. Which is why it's not an answer, but a comment. — RegDwigнt, Oct 20 '18 at 21:41
This is one of those things where the academic answer can be interesting and pretty and span a dissertation, but that you can't actually learn from that academic answer. This is something sofyaorel has to gradually develop a hunch for, by immersing herself in the language. Just like any native speaker has to. They never learned any rules, either. After a while it will come naturally. — RegDwigнt, Oct 20 '18 at 21:46

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 20 '18 at 21:47

Sometimes it is difficult to processs a clause when it functions as the Complement of a particular type of verb. Other times, we want to delay the Complement of the verb when it is a clause to give it greater prominence at the end of the sentence. In both such circumstances, we use the dummy pronoun it as the Complement of the verb and shunt the smaller clause down to the end of the sentence where it appears as an Extraposed Complement.

The Original Poster's sentences could be paraphrased like this:

I don't like [when you speak like this].
I hate [when you speak like this].
I know [that he is in town now] for certain .
He owes [that he became a research chemist] to his brother .

Whether the when-strings there are clauses or not is a bit controversial, but they definitely work the same way as clauses.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 21 '18 at 16:57

(1) and (2) are a different construction from (3) and (4).

Note that the subordinate clauses in the first two are adverbial and can be preposed

When you speak like this, I don't like it.
When you speak like this, I hate it.

The it in these sentences is referential, an indefinite direct object required by the transitive verbs like and hate. The position of the clause is irrelevant.

(3) and (4) are not adverbial clauses, but extraposed complements, as @Araucaria says. The it in this case is the usual dummy it of Extraposition. It's unusual that Extraposition is applied to direct objects instead of subjects. Indeed, I find (3) with it ungrammatical, but just fine without it; YMMV, of course. But (4) is fine, in fact almost unavoidable, given the complex set of presuppositions involved.

How do you explain the usage of "it" in the sentences below?

2 Answers2