Questions about the existential "there," as found in phases like "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
An existential construction is one which expresses a proposition about the presence or existence of someone or something. A common formulation in English is the word there, followed by a verb (typically a form of be), followed by the noun or noun phrase of the thing whose presence or existence is being asserted, as in common expressions like
- There is method in the madness.
- And then there were none.
- If there be sorrow, let it be for things undone.
Various sources may refer to the existential there as a dummy subject, a syntactic expletive, and/or a pleonastic pronoun, among others. Regardless of such terminology, the existential there is to be distinguished from the locative there, which indicates a place or position contrasted with here, as in The sign said ‘Paris,’ and there we were.
The pronoun it can also serve as a dummy subject; see dummy-it for related questions.
