A second class of Subject Expressions in English are so-called pleonastic pronouns such as it and there in sentences like: (104) (a) It is raining/It is a long way to Dallas/Itʼs time to leave/It is obvious that youʼre right (104) (b) There must have been some mistake/There walked into the room the most beautiful woman I had ever encountered These Pronouns are called ‘pleonasticʼ (which means ‘redundantʼ) in traditional grammar because (in their ‘pleonasticʼ use, but not in other uses) they are felt to be (in some vague intuitive sense) ‘semantically emptyʼ, and thus cannot have their reference questioned (cf. ^✽What is raining? ^✽Where must have been some mistake?).

If the kind of network we envisage is to be established, it would be unwise to begin any of its services hurriedly with older stock, which, however admirable in its day, now has an air of faded Edwardian splendour that is out of joint with the times.

But when it comes to the conflict between compassion and cold reason, he is on the side of the angels: […]

When, in 1872, Sir Charles Dilke once more returned to the charge in the House of Commons, introducing a motion for a full enquiry into the Queen's expenditure with a view to a root and branch reform of the Civil List, […]