Syntactic and FSP aspects of the existential construction

Abstract

The paper presents the results of two diploma theses dealing with the analyses of the syntactic and FSP aspects of the existential construction. The analyses were carried out on a sample of 400 instances excerpted from two stylistically different types of text – academic prose and fiction. All instances were divided into two main groups: bare existential construction (i.e. without any adverbial), and existential construction with adverbial(s). The analysis of the bare existential construction was mostly focused on the structure and FSP functions of the notional subject, i.e. the modification of the notional subject and FSP patterns the bare existential construction can realize. The analysis of the other construction focused on the adverbials with particular attention to their sentence position and FSP functions. Based on the analyses the primary and secondary functions of the existential construction were defined.