Odd dummy subject markers

[Laurence Horn]

At 5:53 PM -0200 4/3/06, Charles Doyle wrote:
>The PP need not always be fronted, either.  Just as normal
>is "It says in the Bible that . . . ."

Right, or even be a PP; cf. "It says here that...".  But I think you
do need "it says" for these rather than, say, "it features".

>--although "It
>features a checkerboard pattern on the sign . . ." could
>imply a definite antecedent for "it" (the restaurant, or
>whatever), making "it" less dummy-looking?
>

Agreed, in that it's really "the sign" that features the
checkerboard, not the dummy-"it".

LH

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