Expletive noun phrase
Revision as of 13:47, 8 January 2008 by Haspelmath (talk | contribs)
An expletive (noun phrase) is a noun phrase (mostly a pronoun-like element) that occupies a syntactic position, but has no semantic role.
Examples
The best-known expletive is the English it in ambient constructions like it is raining, and in extraposition constructions like It is nice that you managed to come.
Synonym
Origin
This usage seems to date only from the 1970s.
