EMPTY SUBJECT (EXISTENTIAL ‘THERE’) AND CONCORD IN ENGLISH AND ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Empty subject expressed with existential ‘there’ has confounded English linguists for a longer period of time. While some grammarians do not consider existential ‘there’ as real subject, Jespersen was the first to recognize and call it a ‘lesser subject’. Huddleston and Quirk argue that ‘there’ is subject of existential sentences. On the other hand, there is no subject when we translate simple sentences from English to Albanian language with existential ‘there’. In fact, such translated sentences start with a predicate. Existential ‘there’ and concord between the subject and predicate is also analyzed in this study. There are different examples where existential ‘there’ as subject takes a singular or a plural verb depending on the object in English language. There is a similar situation with the predicate in Albanian language when objects have an influence on the verb number. There are some differences, however, when existential ‘there’ is not in concord with some translated sentences in Albanian language. The second part of this study is focused on a questionnaire filled by students who had to choose between two given options, a singular or a plural verb with existential ‘there’ as the subject of the sentence for translated sentences from English to Albanian language.

Keywords: Empty subject, existential ‘there’, verb, concord, English language, Albanian language.