ANTICIPATORY IT AND THERE

IT 

The anticipatory subject IT is a subject with no meaning in itself. We need the anticipatory subject to leave the information at the end, and, at the same time, fulfill the necessity of a subject.

En English, we find two anticipatory words: it and there . The my anticipate real subjects.

We use it when talking about the weather, time, measures and distance:
It is very cold tonight. 
It functions as an anticipatory subject for
an infinitive: It is nice to work with you. 
an -ing-form: It is good seeing you. 
a finite clause: It is astonishing that he refused the offer.

IT anticipates:

• an infinitive: It is nice to see you.              
• a noun clause: It was a pity that you could not come.
• a gerundial phrase: It is no use crying over spilt milk. / It' s been nice talking to you.

THERE

We use there plus a form of to be when  we want to say that something exists or is. If we can replace ’det er/det var (ikke)’ by ’det finnes/fantes (ikke)’, we must use there is/was (not) in English.

In such cases there is an anticipatory subject for the real subject (underlined in these examples), which brings something new into the text.

• There is a snake in my garden.
• There is a button on that machine which you can press.
• There are many people here who can neither read nor write.

THERE anticipates:

• a noun: There is a book on the table
• a gerund: There is getting over it.

CLEFT SENTENCES AND THE IT IS EMPHATIC TRANSFORMATION.

It is the wife that decides       means        The wife decides.

but we want to emphasize the wife. 

It is possible to emphasize any one phrase>

Henry went to the cinema yesterday

1. It was Henry that went to the cinema yesterday.
2. It was yesterday that Henry went to the cinema.
3. It was to the cinema that Henry went yesterday.

ACTIVITY 4.

After reading this entry, analyze the following sentences and create sentences with every used of it and there.

There is cure for HIV infection at the present.

It may disappear in the future  with the discovery of a vaccine.

It was necessary to prevent new infections.

It is the perfect husband that behaves like this.

It is raining very hard now.

ACTIVITY 5.

Go through Unit 2 (Successful Writing) and do the activities on pages ll to l3 and acts. 9 and l0 on page l6.