On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance

The present study deals with the distribution of subject properties in ‘formulaic’ presentational constructions such as Engl. there is NP, Fr. il y’a NP and Span. hay NP, approaching the problem from a diachronic-typological perspective. Nine major types of presentational constructions are distinguished by cross-classifying the three-valued parameters ‘type of existential predicate’ and ‘type of expletive’. Moreover, a language-level parameter is introduced which distinguishes languages allowing verb-initial order in thetic sentences (‘thetic-V1 languages’) from languages disallowing such an order (‘thetic-XV languages’). It is shown that thetic-XV languages tend to use expletives in their existential formulas, which attract subject properties and qualify as impersonal. By contrast, thetic-V1 languages often do not use expletives at all, and if they do, these do not attract subject properties. The corresponding constructions are consequently not impersonal. Accordingly, a correlation can be established between the parameters ‘thetic-XV’ vs. ‘thetic-V1’, on the one hand, and ‘impersonal presentational’ vs. ‘personal presentational’, on the other.Keywords: presentative; presentational; expletive; existential; thetic