Yikes! Mea Culpa! “They’re,” not “their” – Bill S.

 

 

 

In my (admittedly rather long) list of “grammar naming conventions I’d like to change,” expletive ranks fairly far up. For one thing, “expletive” has a widely-known meaning in everyday discourse, and that meaning is completely unlike its meaning as a grammar term, so students are understandably confused by the term. For another, the usual discussion of (grammar-)expletives says that their meaningless, and like Herb, Craig, and others, I don’t think a word choice can count as meaningless, although some are difficult to pin down in terms of standard dictionary entries. With there-constructions, it’s particularly easy to isolate a kind of meaning:

 

                A fly is in my soup.

                There’s a fly in my soup.

               

The first is a comment about the fly. The second is a comment about the situation. The first is rare, probably because one is much more likely to be interested in the fact that the fly is in one’s soup than one is to be interested in the fly itself. From that standpoint, “there” is not an empty form; its meaning has expanded beyond location, but it hasn’t diffused enough to count as “meaningless.”

 

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English

Central Michigan University

 

 

Linda,

 

I’m with both Craig and Robert on this.  I like to look at a language as an ecology, rather as in zoology.  There is nothing in that ecology that doesn’t have its niche, its role that nothing else can do quite as well.  So English has developed expletives and existential for good reason, usually to allow the speaker to place new information in focus position.  Since English is one of those languages that doesn’t allow null subjects, it has to fill the subject position with something, and expletive “it” and “there” do the job well.  Existentials also allow us to avoid indefinite subjects, which tend not to be comfortable in English.  “A new new message is in your mailbox” doesn’t work as well as “There’s a new message in your mailbox.”  Existential and extraposed sentences are great ways to introduce new information, which typically requires the indefinite.

 

That said, both constructions get overused and reduce the effectiveness of one’s writing, and you’re right to alert your students to that risk.  However, banning constructions like these or the passive, or artificially restricting “that” and “which,” are rather like using broad spectrum weed killer on your front yard ecology.

 

Herb

 

 

Linda,
   My cat-skinning sentence is better understood as "existential"--my error--similar to "It is raining" or "There is plenty of food." We seem to have a resistance to "be" as intransitive. "More than one good way to skin a cat exists" would be an alternative.
   I think if I were trying to improve writing in a one-day workshop, wordiness is something I would target. But we do have to be careful about it. There are very good functional reasons for extraposition. And I would caution against revising sentences outside the context of their place in a text and outside the discourse context. Robert's points seem largely on target.
   The larger point I was hoping to make is that we we need a functional understanding of language, not just a formal one. We also need goals that are larger than reducing wordiness. Less wordy texts are often clearer because we have (to quote the late great Don Murray) "gotten the static out". But that raises clarity to a goal and makes cutting words a means and not an end.
   The operative question might be "What knowledge about language helps a writer accomplish his or her own goals." We have to yank the attention away from "what forms are correct."
  
Craig

Linda Comerford wrote:

Craig,

Regarding one of my pet peeves, "it" and "there" expletives, I'm wondering

if you would accept "Loving you is easy" as a more streamlined way of

saying, "It is easy to love you"?  I'm fine with your cat-skinning "there"

expletive.

As I believe you can see from my posts, I try to give those in my one-day

classes information to help them make informed decisions about their writing

afterwards.  If I received 50 cents every time I see folks write sentences

like, "There are many reasons why the cafeteria should remain open beyond

2:00," in my 20+ year career, I'd be rich!  To me, such sentences are the

equivalent of starting a sentence in a presentation with "uh" or "um."  My

theory about expletives is that they start so many sentences because their

writers often don't know where they want their sentences to go.  Writing is

discovery, so those lead-in words give them time to get to their point.  But

if they keep the expletive, they often delay the subject until the middle of

the sentence where their readers are more likely to miss it.  Instead, I

offer them the option to start with the subject as in this re-write:  "The

cafeteria should remain open beyond 2:00 for many reasons."  Writers and

readers alike appreciate such streamlined clarity.

That's when my "save 50 cents a word" editorial tip comes into play.  My

participants not only resonate to it but remember it.  I've encountered

folks from one of my classes over 10 years ago tell me they draft without

regard to wordiness but then revise with that 50-cent idea in mind.  Maybe

with inflation I should up it to $1.00....

Linda

Linda Comerford

317.786.6404

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www.comerfordconsulting.com

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