Timeline for what does mean "it there"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 25, 2018 at 0:40 | comment | added | Joker_vD | @JackM Or, one could take "it" to mean "the way the things are" in that context. "I like the way the things are there". The same idea as "the state of the universe", just in not-so-grand words. | |
| Dec 25, 2018 at 0:07 | comment | added | Ethan Bierlein | I am immensely taken aback by the fact that you included the correct definition of what a pleonastic / dummy pronoun is, yet immediately managed to follow the inclusion of that definition with absurd claims like “it does have some meaning [...] (something that exists) [...] it refers to something.” It has no meaning besides fulfilling a syntactical requirement of English; it refers to nothing. | |
| Dec 24, 2018 at 15:28 | comment | added | CCTO | + for Jack M. As a native speaker, "I like it there" means no more and no less than "I like being there". There is no objective referent, no landmark or venue or weather, being referred to. One might still ask "What do you like about it" and there could be specific answers (the museums, the architecture, the nightlife) but I don't believe we should consider any of them to be the "it". | |
| Dec 24, 2018 at 10:51 | vote | accept | Mohammad Afrashteh | ||
| Dec 24, 2018 at 10:00 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | @JackM I disagree. The speaker is referring to something specific, they just haven't said what it is. If I say I like it there, I definitely do have something in mind about what I like. Otherwise, I'd simply say, "I get a good feeling when I think about the place; I have no idea why . . ." | |
| Dec 24, 2018 at 9:54 | comment | added | Jack M | I feel like this answer might be a bit confusing to some people - it makes it sound as if the speaker is actually referring to something concrete (like a specific restaurant), but not saying what it is. The "it" in "I like it there" isn't a specific thing that's there, it's the same "it" as in "it's raining", or "it's five o'clock". It just refers to "the state of the universe". | |
| Dec 24, 2018 at 8:10 | history | edited | Jason Bassford | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 14 characters in body
|
| Dec 24, 2018 at 8:05 | history | edited | Jason Bassford | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 22 characters in body
|
| Dec 24, 2018 at 8:00 | history | answered | Jason Bassford | CC BY-SA 4.0 |