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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

There is no there there

An American poet once famously commented that "There is no there there."

She was referring to the fact that her hometown neighborhood was no longer there in the sense in which she had known it as a child.

I understand how people would parse the first "there" and the third "there."

But what part of speech would you assign to the second "there"?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH
  

Top answer

e. a 'home' for her, her own 'there'. As things changed, her 'there' is no longer what it used to be, so the place she once knew (her 'there') is no longer there...

— BelJ

  • e.
  • a 'home' for her, her own 'there'.
  • As things changed, her 'there' is no longer what it used to be, so the place she once knew (her 'there') is no longer there...
  • there is no longer there!
  • Did that make any sense?
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3 Answers
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As I see it: 'there' is a place she grew up in, i.e. a 'home' for her, her own 'there'. As things changed, her 'there' is no longer what it used to be, so the place she once knew (her 'there') is no longer there... there is no longer there!

Did that make any sense?
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"There (a dummy pronoun that serves as a placeholder for the actual subject) is no there (the grammatical subject of the sentence) there (adverb of place):."

Compare with a more reasonable sentence:
There is no cheese on the plate.
There (a dummy pronoun that serves as a placeholder for the actual subject) is no cheese (the grammatical subjec
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Thank you both for your replies.

The point about the second "there" being the actual subject was most insightful.
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