Difference between revisions of "There"
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==Comfort== | ==Comfort== | ||
*There, there, don't cry. | *There, there, don't cry. | ||
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| + | ==Famous uses== | ||
| + | There is no there, there. (Gertrude Stein is famous for this sentence about her native Oakland. She said it about going back to her native Oakland, because she no longer knew many people in a city that had changed since her youth. Ishmael Reed responded. Later, in the 2016 elections, this became the mantra of the Clinton spinners dealing with the many leaks during the 2016 elections (after it was used by ???): but it had come to be synonymous with "big nothing-burger", which originated in the same quarters. It's not clear if "There is no there, there" was meant to mean "There is no smoking gun, there" or "There is no context there, there in that email dump" | ||
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| + | Wikipedians even have a policy (NOTHERE) by this name that can be cited when blocking people from editing the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is generally parsed as "Not here" rather than "No there". | ||
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==Humorous add-on to demonstrative determiners== | ==Humorous add-on to demonstrative determiners== | ||
| − | From dialectal (non-standard) English | + | From dialectal (non-standard) English, forms a contrastive pair with "here" to indicate proximity or distance. ' |
*"That there" NOUN vs. "this here" NOUN | *"That there" NOUN vs. "this here" NOUN | ||
*"them there" NOUNs vs. "these here" NOUNs | *"them there" NOUNs vs. "these here" NOUNs | ||
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[[Category:100-en]] | [[Category:100-en]] | ||
Revision as of 12:39, 8 June 2018
Contents
Pronunciation
UK: strong form /ðeə/, There's /ðeəz/, There are /ðerə/
US: strong form /ðɜr/, There's /ðɜrz/, There are /ðɜrər/
NB: identical to the pronunciation of there and they're. This is terribly inefficient and makes learning difficult, but what can you do? That's the way the language is!
Existential
In the following patterns: s indicates any plural noun. (i.e. including irregular ones like people, children, data, alumni, etc., ...
Present
- There is an . . . in the fridge.
- There are . . .s in the soup.
- There isn't any . . . in the soup. uncountable nouns
- There isn't an . . . in the toolbox.
- There aren't any . . . s in the freezer. countable nouns
Past
- There was a problem with the file.
- There were mistakes in the file.
- There wasn't any . . . left. uncountable nouns
- There weren't any . . . s in the building. countable nouns
Future
- There will be an . . . next week.
- There will be . . . s later this week.
- There won't be an . . . until next week.
- There won't be . . . s in the room.
Locative
A location a distance away from the speaker & listener. The opposite of here.
Idiomatic
Comfort
- There, there, don't cry.
Famous uses
There is no there, there. (Gertrude Stein is famous for this sentence about her native Oakland. She said it about going back to her native Oakland, because she no longer knew many people in a city that had changed since her youth. Ishmael Reed responded. Later, in the 2016 elections, this became the mantra of the Clinton spinners dealing with the many leaks during the 2016 elections (after it was used by ???): but it had come to be synonymous with "big nothing-burger", which originated in the same quarters. It's not clear if "There is no there, there" was meant to mean "There is no smoking gun, there" or "There is no context there, there in that email dump"
Wikipedians even have a policy (NOTHERE) by this name that can be cited when blocking people from editing the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is generally parsed as "Not here" rather than "No there".
Humorous add-on to demonstrative determiners
From dialectal (non-standard) English, forms a contrastive pair with "here" to indicate proximity or distance. '
- "That there" NOUN vs. "this here" NOUN
- "them there" NOUNs vs. "these here" NOUNs
