Now, there's a/the guy who's going places.

Question

At 1:51, a girl says "Now, there's a/the guy who's going places."Is it "a" or "the" here?Because of the /s/ sound, I think that it should be determined based on the grammar, not on the sound itself.

GPY · Accepted Answer

a

Listenever · Answer

Is there any reason she pronounced "there" the way she did? (Rather strongly)

GPY · Answer

listeneverIs there any reason she pronounced "there" the way she did? (Rather strongly)

A possibility is that she is comparing with someone else previously mentioned who is not going places. However, it is fairly unexceptional to stress the word "there" in that sentence, so there needn't be any specific explanation, albeit the phrasing in this kind of scripted cartoon dialogue can generally tend to be a bit more exaggerated than in real life.

Listenever · Answer

GPYA possibility is that she is comparing with someone else previously mentioned who is not going places. However, it is fairly unexceptional to stress the word "there" in that sentence, so there needn't be any specific explanation, albeit the phrasing in this kind of scripted cartoon dialogue can generally tend to be a bit more exaggerated than in real life.

Thanks.
I'm asking this, because I remember a native speaker pronouncing 'there's' strongly when followed by 'the'. And in that case the meaning of 'there' was locative (as opposed to 'here'). So I was wondering if this 'there' is not just a "dummy there" as they call it but a locative there, and if so, I was wondering if 'the' is also possible.

GPY · Answer

Literally, "there" refers to the location of the guy, but in practice it is more demonstrative in this sentence.

"There's a ~ who/that is ~" is a standard pattern of wording to draw attention to the qualities or properties of something.

"There's the guy who is going places" is not impossible, but it would be less common. It would require a previous mention that someone was going places, whereas your sentence has an exclamatory feel, as if making a new observation.

Listenever · Answer

GPYHowever, it is fairly unexceptional to stress the word "there" in that sentence, so there needn't be any specific explanation, albeit the phrasing in this kind of scripted cartoon dialogue can generally tend to be a bit more exaggerated than in real life.

GPYLiterally, "there" refers to the location of the guy, but in practice it is more demonstrative in this sentence."There's a ~ who/that is ~" is a standard pattern of wording to draw attention to the qualities or properties of something.

So, do you think that "there" in this case is the dummy there bleached of its locative meaning, as in "There's a book on the desk"? Or that it does have a locative meaning?

GPY · Answer

No, it's not like "There's a book on the desk". That is an example of idiomatic "there is/are" used to state the existence of something (and the word "there" could never be stressed). In "There's a guy who is going places", the word "there" does have its full meaning, but the practical effect is more like "That's a guy who is going places" than "A guy who is going places is located in the place that I'm indicating".

Listenever · Answer

Oh I see!
So, this sentence is actually an inversion of "A guy who is going places is there", right?

GPY · Answer

listeneverOh I see!So, this sentence is actually an inversion of "A guy who is going places is there", right?

No, you would not say it that way. The pattern for the required meaning is "There's /There is a ...". However, it is not the same "there's a" as the one that merely states existence.

CalifJim · Answer

listeneverSo, this sentence is actually an inversion of "A guy who is going places is there", right?

"there" is more like a demonstrative, as GPY has already said. It's practically a combination of both types of there; locative there and existential there.

There's a guy who's going places ~ There (locative) {pointing implicitly to the guy} there (existential) is a guy who is going places. ~ That's a guy who's going places.

CJ

Now, there's a/the guy who's going places.

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