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Taka Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Dummy 'it'

It's impossible that he did everything in 90 seconds.

The sentence above can be converted to:

That he did everything in 90 seconds is impossible.

Now, why do you think this conversion doesn't really work? Or does it work?

That she needs to support her brood with her small income makes her work hard every day.

?It makes her work hard every day that she needs to support her brood with her small income.
  

Top answer

The first is a linking verb?

— Mister Micawber

  • The first is a linking verb?
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13 Answers
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The first is a linking verb?
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What do you mean, MM?
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why do you think this conversion doesn't really work? -- The first is a linking verb?
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Where in the first one is the linking verb?
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Takawhy do you think this conversion doesn't really work?
Because this kind of transformation is restricted to only certain kinds of expressions like "is impossible", "is likely", "is necessary", etc. Though these do use the linking verb "is", there are other cases that don't: "stands to reason", "defies all logic", "amazes me", "concerns me", and so on. Wh
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So this conversion works?

That she needs to support her brood with her small income makes her friends sad.

?It makes her friends sad that she needs to support her brood with her small income.
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I'd put it down to a syntactic constraint on this particular kind of extraposition. The matrix clause here contains the complex catenative construction 'make her work hard', the significance of this being that the meaningless dummy pronoun 'it' can't normally function as an ordinary (as distinct from 'raised') subject to a catenative verb - thus the extraposed version is not possible:
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Yet the absence of a complex catenative construction does not automatically make the statement grammatical.

That the leading man was ill delayed the opening of the show.

?It delayed the opening of the show that the leading man was ill.

That she was absent made more work for everyone.
?It made more work for everyone that she was absent.

That the director was
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CalifJimYup! It works.
Then what about this? Still works?

That she needs to support her brood with her small income makes her friends feel sad.

?It makes her friends feel sad that she needs to support her brood with her small income.
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