Although idiot and dummy do commonly have the same meaning, the use of idiot in this joking phrase draws particular attention to a specific sense of idiot. From Merriam-Webster's definition of idiot: 1 : a foolish or stupid person It's the use of foolish in the definition that's relevant. From Merriam-Webster's definition of dummy: 1 c : a ...

Dec 12, 2023 · It seems like you haven't understood the article. "Dummy it refers to nothing at all; it simply serves a grammatical function. In other words, dummy it has a grammatical meaning but no lexical meaning." Here, there are clear meanings and referents: a movie and a reading. (Note, "a reading" usually means a passage that is read, like in a worship service or as a homework assignment. If we want ...

Jun 9, 2021 · In English, existential clauses usually use the dummy subject construction (also known as expletive) with there, as in "There are boys in the yard"… In the OP's sentence, the subject is not "nobody" but there (is). Consequently, the rule dictates that you should repeat the same subject used in the clause to make a question tag.

May 3, 2024 · There is no question of dummy "it" being a preparatory element, since the elements that follow it do not give the meaning if "it". "It" is, then, just a dummy element serving the syntactic purpose of filling the obligatory subject position.

Mar 17, 2025 · It's good for me to see you is not particularly idiomatic; I would understand it to mean "Seeing you does me good (improves my wellbeing)", in the same way that we say that certain foods are "good for you".

Oct 26, 2021 · In sentence a, you need the dummy pronoun it, because the direct object with found in this meaning is placed between found and the complement to the object. The normal construction is found + something + difficult, but because the direct object is a whole subclause (to stop thinking of one little girl), that subclause is placed at the end of your main clause. That is why we use the dummy ...

Jan 5, 2016 · Footnote: "there" isn't the dummy subject in these greetings. "There" is a dummy subject mostly in constructions there is or there are, or before certain verbs in certain contexts.

Nov 4, 2022 · Initial There's is OK before anything. When it's at the beginning of the sentence, it's just a dummy, with no meaning or plural, and it's reified into one word before anything plural can happen in the sentence. By the time the real subject comes along, plural or not, the listener will've forgotten how the sentence started. Since it didn't start with …

Mar 30, 2021 · 'It is important to take a break twice a day' 'It' is a dummy subject here, 'important' is working as an Adjective and but how this Infinitive clause'to take a break...' is working. Is it an Adverb...

Jul 13, 2014 · The grammatical subject is the dummy pronoun "It". The expression "where our interest lies" is a subordinate content clause, which is called by some grammars (e.g. CGEL) as the "extraposed subject". An extraposed subject is NOT a kind of subject--it is merely an element in extraposed position.