Should "it/this" always refer to a specific noun?

Asked Aug 17 '20 at 13:44

Active Aug 17 '20 at 13:51

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I have a paragraph starting with the below sentence. "it" is not referring to any specific noun. Is there any problem with that?

It has been estimated that health care costs accounted for 11.6% of Canada’s GDP in 2019, the majority of which were spent in hospitals.

Best, Amir

edited Aug 17 '20 at 13:51

tchrist

asked Aug 17 '20 at 13:44

mdslt

Does this answer your question? What is "it" in the following sentence: It is clear that Bob likes doughnuts This is the dummy 'it' associated with extraposition. In John Lawler's answer to the duplicate question, he gives a link to an article stating that there are various dummy it's (non-referential) as well as the usual referential version. The French conveniently use a different word ('ce' rather than 'il' etc). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 17 '20 at 13:59
This is one example where the non-extraposed equivalent would not be possible. – BillJ Aug 17 '20 at 14:24

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