English presentative sentences with have

Gabriela Brůhová, Markéta Malá

FULL TEXT

ABSTRACT (en)

The paper explores the potential of English sentences with the verb have to constitute the Presentation Scale. Have-presentative sentences, in which the verb is devoid of its possessive meaning, can be viewed as an alternative to the “full presentative” there-constructions. Both constructions contain an indefinite noun phrase presenting new information, and they share the communicative function of introducing a new referent into discourse, cf. We have a long trip ahead of us vs. There’s a long trip ahead of us. Presentative sentences with have are described and classified with respect to the animacy, semantics and reference of the subject, the presence of a locative adverbial, and the semantics of the object.

KEYWORDS (en)

Presentation Scale, have-presentative sentences, locative subject, verbs of existence and appearance

DOI

https://doi.org/10.14712/18059635.2019.2.3

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