20230913 虛主詞 Dummy Subjects(83)

虛主詞
Dummy Subjects
In English, a sentence must have a subject except the imperative. Sometimes we need to use a "dummy" or "empty" subject when there is no subject attached to the verb, and where the real subject is somewhere else in the clause. "It" and "there" are the two dummy subjects used in English. In this lesson, we'll focus on "there". "There" can be used as an adverb and placed at the end of the sentence, indicating a location, but as a dummy subject, "there" doesn't really have a meaning, and it is used to introduce the real subject, which can be someone or something. Whether the verb that follows "there" should be singular or plural depends on the real subject.

英文的句子，有個規定，就是「主詞的位置」是需要被填滿的。舉例來說，當我們在中文裡說：「有個東西在那」，嚴格說起來這句是沒有主詞的，然而英文不允許這樣的事發生，因此我們會安插入「虛主詞」。

英文的虛主詞主要包含 It 與 There 兩者。本課主要聚焦在 there 上，這個字原本作為地方副詞，放在句尾，其意義為強調動作發生的「地方」，而其本身亦是名詞。作為虛主詞，其實是由倒裝句型的演變而成，There 成為主詞後，失去其原本表達地方的意義，反而變成強調動作發生的事實，用來引出某人、事、物的存在。There 所銜接的動詞的「數」，由後方的名詞所決定。

例句
There are a few books on the shelf.

書架上有幾本書。

There'll be an eclipse of the moon tonight.

今晚會有月食。

There were twenty people at the meeting.

有二十個人參加了會議。