| 词组 | there is, there are |
| 释义 | there is, there are When there is a "dummy" or anticipatory subject, the number of the verb is determined by the number of the true subject following: • There is no more grasping man within the four walls of the world —Lady Gregory, Darners Gold, in New Comedies, 1913 • "There are whiskers on it," said he soberly —James Stephens, The Crock of Gold, 1912 Simple enough, isn't it? A singular verb followed by a singular noun, a plural verb followed by a plural noun. That is the way things are supposed to work and often do, but there are complications. For instance, when a compound subject follows the verb and the first element is singular, we find mixed usage—the verb may either be singular or plural. Jespersen 1909-49 (vol. 2) explains the singular verb as a case of attraction of the verb to the first subject, and illustrates it with this from Shakespeare: • There comes an old man, and his three sons —As You Like It, 1600 Perrin & Ebbitt 1972 also suggests that many writers feel the plural verb is awkward before a singular noun, and Bryant 1962 cites studies that show the singular verb is much more common in standard English. (You can see by the first of the following examples that clauses beginning with here, though less frequent than ones beginning with there, follow the same principles.) • ... for here is a Noun, and a Pronoun representing it —Bishop Lowth (in Leonard 1929) • So long as there's rain and salamanders on Henry Street, Winston will be there too —Elizabeth Frey, Springfield (Mass.) Morning Union, 1 Apr. 1987 Some writers, however, follow formal agreement and use a plural verb: • ... there were perplexity and agitation —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • ... where there were a white beach and an amusement park —John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle, 1957 We also find mixed usage when a collective noun that is the formal subject is followed by a prepositional phrase with a plural noun as the object. A correspondent in 1984 complained of the lack of agreement in this sentence: • There's been a lot of highway traffic problems. The verb in a construction like this is governed by notional agreement. When the speaker or writer has the collective in mind, a singular verb is used: • There is a handful of other caves —Geographical Mag, May 1984 • ... she suddenly perceives, feels, that there is an extraordinary number of handsome young men — Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1977 And when the plural noun is in mind, a plural verb is used: • ... there are a new variety of potatoes —unidentified woman on television, 9 Feb. 1983 • ... there were a passel of Italian movie producers shooting Westerns in the Israeli desert —Daniel B. Drooz, N.Y. Times, 1 July 1973 Harder to explain, perhaps, is a long-standing propensity for there is or there's in every case, even when the following subject is clearly plural and there are no complications to cloud our minds. Jespersen finds the same construction in Danish, Russian, and Italian, and dates it back in English to the 15th century. It certainly has been common: • Honey, and milk, and sugar: there is three —Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, 1595 • How many is there of 'em, Scrub? —George Far-quhar, The Beaux Stratagem, 1707 • ... but there is in nature, I fear, too many tendencies to envy and jealousy —Charles Lamb, letter, 13 June 1797 • A lottery where there is a hundred thousand blanks to one prize —Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, 1722 • There was forty acres in bluegrass —Harry S. Truman, quoted in Merle Miller, Plain Speaking, 1973 • ... if there's several ways you can use something before or after the verb, we'll use two sample sentences —Stuart Berg Flexner, quoted in Righting Words, July/August 1987 Some of these can be variously explained away. For instance, Harry Truman no doubt thought of the forty acres as a parcel (he referred to them with it later in the sentence), and there are quite a few words between there is and tendencies in the Lamb quotation. The latter brings us to Jespersen's shrewd theory that there is or there's is often out—in speech or on paper—before the whole sentence is formulated. Early choice of the verb before the number of the subject is actually decided would also explain the occasional instance of the plural verb with a singular subject: • There were one group you did not mention —Daniel Schorr, speaking on television, 27 Jan. 1981 Jespersen notes that the invariable singular occurs mostly in the colloquial style—speech and speechlike prose—and is generally avoided in the literary style. That observation accords with our evidence. In the more complex constructions, you are best guided by your own sense of what sounds right in the particular context to avoid awkwardness and maintain the smooth flow of the sentence. |
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