Dummy pronoun
A
dummy pronoun (formally:
expletive pronoun or
pleonastic pronoun) is a type of
pronoun used in non-
pro-drop languages, such as
English.It is used when a particular
verb argument (or
preposition) is
nonexistent, unknown, irrelevant, already understood, or otherwise
not to be spoken of directly, but when a reference to the argument (a pronoun) is nevertheless
syntactically required —ie. when there is increasing
ambiguity between the pronoun and the subject or object.
For instance, in the phrase,
It is obvious that the violence will continue,
it is a dummy pronoun, not referring to any
agent. Unlike a regular pronoun of English, it cannot be replaced by any
noun phrase.
The "weather it"
In the phrase
It is raining, the verb
to rain is usually considered
semantically impersonal, even though it appears as syntactically
intransitive; in this view, the required
it is to be considered a dummy word.
However, there have been a few objections to this interpretation.
Noam Chomsky has argued that the
it employed as the subject of English
weather verbs ("weather
it", called so due to their predominant use in reference to
weather) can control an adjunct clause, just like a "normal" subject. For example, compare:
She brushes her teeth before having a bath.::→
She brushes her teeth before she has a bath.It sometimes rains after snowing.::→
It sometimes rains after it snows.
If this analysis is accepted, then the "weather
it" is to be considered a "quasi-(verb) argument" and not a dummy word.
Some linguists like
D.L. Bolinger go even further and claim that the "weather it" simply refers to a general state of affairs in the context of utterance. In this case, it would not be a dummy word at all.
In English, dummy
object pronouns tend to serve an ad hoc function, applying with less regularity than they do as subjects. Dummy objects are sometimes used to transform
transitive light verbs into
intransitive verbs, e.g.
do →
do it, "to engage in sexual intercourse";
make →
make it, "to achieve success";
get →
get it, "to comprehend". Prepositional objects are similar, e.g.
with it (now old fashioned), "up to date";
out of it, "unconscious". All of these phrases, of course, can also be taken literally. For instance:
He ordered a cheeseburger, and even though it took them a while to make it, he did get some french fries with it.
*
Chomsky, Noam (
1981) Lectures on Government and Binding. Dordrecht: Foris., cited in http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/julkaisut/SKY2004/Alba-Salas.pdf.
*
Bolinger, D. L. (1977). Meaning and form. English Language Series, 11. London: Longman.
