syntactic expletive

短语

词形变化

syntactic expletives 复数 syntactic expletives

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    A pronoun that is used at the start of a sentence or clause when the referent is not immediately known, but an argument for the verb is syntactically required.

    语言学

    In the sentences "It is a hammer that is needed." and "There are hammers in the toolbox.", both "it" and "there" are syntactic expletives.