Historical context

Abstract The chapter outlines the historical context in which Italo-Romance there sentences developed. Firstly, it is observed that the proform, which is absent in Latin, appears in early Italo-Romance locative there sentences with a definite focal argument. In its subsequent generalization to structures with indefinite pivots the proform is reanalysed as the proargument of existential sentences, thus losing its referential locative function. Secondly, the chapter considers existentials with the copulas habere and stare, which are attested in late Latin. Importantly, in existentials with habere the pivot does not control agreement on the copula, thus prefiguring the agreement pattern which is found in present-day habere existentials in Romance. The chapter finally turns to expletives. In Old Lombard the expletive lacks agreement features, like the expletive subject clitic found in the there sentences of many modern northern dialects. In Old Tuscan and Old Apulian the occurrence of the expletive is motivated in pragmatic or stylistic terms.