A follow up with illustration to a question I asked on expletives the other day (thanks to those of you who answered!):

The student asks what the subject is in the following sentence:

"It is not good to wake a sleeping lion."

Should the teacher say "It" or "to wake a sleeping lion"?

(the teacher might answer that "to wake a sleeping lion" is the subject by pointing out that the sentence is saying, "To wake a sleeping lion is not good."

But then the student asks the same question about

"There is no penalty for overachievement."

Is the subject "There" or "no penalty for overachievement"?

The teacher might answer "no penalty for achievement," but in the sense of what? "No penalty for achievement there is"?? 

Unsure in Freeport,

Kent

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