Everything about Dummy Pronoun totally explained
A
dummy pronoun (formally:
expletive pronoun or
pleonastic pronoun) is a type of
pronoun used in non-
pro-drop languages, such as
English.It is used when a particular
verb argument (or
preposition) is
nonexistent, unknown, irrelevant, already understood, or otherwise
not to be spoken of directly, but when a reference to the argument (a pronoun) is nevertheless
syntactically required.
For instance, in the phrase,
It is obvious that the violence will continue,
it is a dummy pronoun, not referring to any
agent. Unlike a regular pronoun of English, it can't be replaced by any
noun phrase.
Dummy subjects
Weather
it
In the phrase
It is raining, the verb
to rain is usually considered
semantically impersonal, even though it appears as syntactically
intransitive; in this view, the required
it is to be considered a dummy word.
Contrarian views
However, there have been a few objections to this interpretation.
Noam Chomsky has argued that the
it employed as the subject of English
weather verbs ("weather
it", so called because of its predominant use in reference to
weather) can control an adjunct clause, just like a "normal" subject. For example, compare:
» She brushes her teeth before having a bath.
:→
She brushes her teeth before she's a bath.
» It sometimes rains after snowing.
:→
It sometimes rains after it snows.
If this analysis is accepted, then the "weather
it" is to be considered a "quasi-(verb) argument" and not a dummy word.
Some linguists like
D.L. Bolinger go even further and claim that the "weather it" simply refers to a general state of affairs in the context of utterance. In this case, it wouldn't be a dummy word at all. Possible evidence for this claim includes exchanges such as:
» "Was it nice (out) yesterday?"
"No, it rained."
Raising verbs
it are found with
raising verbs in "unraised" counterparts. For example:
» It seems that Halil loves coffee. (corresponding "raised" sentence:
Halil seems to love coffee.)
Extraposition
Dummy
it can also be found in
extraposition constructions in English such as in the following:
»
Dummy objects
In English, dummy
object pronouns tend to serve an ad hoc function, applying with less regularity than they do as subjects. Dummy objects are sometimes used to transform
transitive verbs to
transitive light verbs from, for example
do →
do it, "to engage in sexual intercourse";
make →
make it, "to achieve success";
get →
get it, "to comprehend". Prepositional objects are similar, for example
with it (now old fashioned), "up to date";
out of it, "unconscious". All of these phrases, of course, can also be taken literally. For instance:
» He ordered a cheeseburger, and even though it took them a while to make it, he did get some french fries with it.
Dummy predicates
It has been proposed that elements like expletive
there in
existential sentences and pro in inverse copular sentence play the role of dummy predicates rather than dummy subject so that the postverbal Noun Phrase would rather be the embedded subject of the
sentence. See
copula and
sentence.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dummy Pronoun'.
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