Anexistential clause is aclause that refers to the existence or presence of something, such as "There is a God" and "There are boys in the yard". The use of such clauses can be considered analogous toexistential quantification in predicate logic, which is often expressed with the phrase "There exist(s)...".
Different languages have different ways of forming and using existential clauses. For details on theEnglish forms, seeEnglish grammar:There as pronoun.
Many languages form existential clauses without any particular marker by simply using forms of the normalcopula verb (the equivalent of Englishbe), thesubject being the noun (phrase) referring to the thing whose existence is asserted. For example, theFinnish sentencePihalla on poikia, meaning "There are boys in the yard", is literally "On the yard is boys". Some languages have a different verb for that purpose:Swedishfinnas hasDet finns pojkar på gården, literally "It is found boys on the yard". On the other hand, some languages do not require a copula at all, and sentences analogous to "In the yard boys" are used. Some languages use the verbhave; for exampleSerbo-CroatianU dvorištu ima dječaka is literally "In the yard has boys".[1]
Some languages form the negative of existential clauses irregularly; for example, inRussian,естьyest ("there is/are") is used in affirmative existential clauses (in the present tense), but the negative equivalent isнетnyet ("there is/are not"), used with the logical subject in thegenitive case.
In English, existential clauses usually use thedummy subject construction (also known as expletive) withthere (infinitive: there be), as in "There are boys in the yard", butthere is sometimes omitted when the sentence begins with anotheradverbial (usually designating a place), as in "In my room (there) is a large box." Other languages with constructions similar to the English dummy subject includeFrench (seeil y a) andGerman, which useses ist,es sind ores gibt, literally "it is", "it are", "it gives".
The principal meaning of existential clauses is to refer to the existence of something or the presence of something in a particular place or time. For example, "There is a God" asserts the existence of a God, but "There is a pen on the desk" asserts the presence or existence of a pen in a particular place.
Existential clauses can be modified like other clauses in terms oftense,negation,interrogative inversion,modality,finiteness, etc. For example, one can say "There was a God", "There is not a God" ("There is no God"), "Is there a God?", "There might be a God", "He was anxious for there to be a God" etc.
An existential sentence is one of four structures associated within thePingelapese language ofMicronesia. The form heavily uses a post-verbal subject order and explains what exists or does not exist. Only a few Pingelapese verbs are used existential sentence structure:minae- "to exist",soh- "not to exist",dir- "to exist in large numbers", anddaeri- "to be finished". All four verbs have a post-verbal subject in common and usually introduce new characters to a story. If a character is already known, the verb would be used in the preverbal position.[2]
In some languages, linguisticpossession (in a broad sense) is indicated by existential clauses, rather than by a verb likehave. For example, inRussian, "I have a friend" can be expressed by the sentence у меня есть другu menya yest' drug, literally "at me there is a friend". Russian has a verb иметьimet' meaning "have", but it is less commonly used than the former method.
Other examples includeIrishTá peann agam "(There) is (a) pen at me" (for "I have a pen”).HungarianVan egy halam "(There) is a fish-my" (for "I have a fish") andTurkishİki defterim var "two notebook-my (there) is" (for "I have two notebooks").
InMaltese, a change over time has been noted: "in the possessive construction, subject properties have been transferred diachronically from the possessed noun phrase to the possessor, while the possessor has all the subject properties except the form of the verb agreement that it triggers."[3]