The Historical Development of the Phrase there's: An Analysis of the Oxford English Dictionary Data

Abstract

It is well pointed out in literature that the existential sentence, i.e. the there + be construction, was established by the beginning of Modern English. In Present-day English, the phrase there's is often observed to exhibit number disagreement. There is a consensus view that such a phenomenon is attributed to the grammaticalised status as a single unit of the item concerned. Through analysing quotation texts in the Oxford English Dictionary, this study has investigated when grammaticalisation of there's started in the English history. By conducting the research into non-concord in number, passivisation, and notional subjects containing a definite referent, it is proven that it was already grammaticalised at the beginning of Modern English when it was first attested in the Oxford English Dictionary. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that there's played a major role in the formation of the there + be+ NP + VP construction. This study proposes that after a long process of grammaticalisation and subjectification, there's came to function as an adverbial-like particle on certain occasions by the end of Late Modern English.