Date:  Sun, 27 Feb 1994 15:20:32 EST

From:  TERRY IRONS <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSUACAD.MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>

Subject: Re: there's



>

> I've been intrigued recently by the use of singular (?) there's in

> plural contexts, i.e. "There's the books I've been looking for," or

> "There's two ways to solve that problem," in unmonitored speech. Has

> anyone noticed it, or better yet, studied and written on it? I'd be

> interested in learning.

> Terese Thonus

> Indiana University

>



I am currently doing a descriptive study of special cases of agreement

marking using a forced choice test. The results suggest that

agreement is inherently variable in english, which makes it

either a defective node (similar to that deletion in relative

clauses) or a style rule. Am presenting paper on topic this week.



To the point of your query, I used to There _____ items in

my test (which actually originates from Don Lance a few years

back).

    a. There _____ two boys and a girl in the room.

    b. There _____ a girl and two boys looking for you.



Responses to a. are categorially plural. With b., however,

61% of informants select the singular There's/There is form.



One is tempted to conclude that there really is no such

thing as s-v # agreement in core grammar of english. There

are (!) no number realizations for past tense nor for future

time expressions using will. The only remnant is -s on

third person present singular and some idiosyncratic

auxiliaries. No such marking shows up on modal forms, what

remains of subjunctive mood, or in complement constructions

such as I saw him leave, etc.



I am interested in hearing about any quantitative

descriptive studies myself.



Terry Irons