Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

(43) a. There is the post office next to the library.
b. The post office is there next to the library.
In both (43a) and (43b), the normal use for such sentences would be to ostend and refer to
the post office with a pointing finger and emphatic stress on the word “there,” hence the
characterization of such sentences as presentational. Now, if one inverts “there” and the
post-copular noun in a sentence like (42), the result is something like (44).
(44) A post office is there next to the library.
Once again the presentational rather than the existential reading is the only one available,
so there really is something special about existential “there” sentences.
As noted above, the primary exception—an exception in certain respects at least—to
the restriction on definite nouns in definiteness effect environments is that definite nouns
can occur in definiteness effect restricted environments if they are affected by focus.
When in focus, as for example in answer to a wh-question, the post-copular noun phrase
in an existential sentence can be definite, but in such cases it assumes a rather special
interpretation.
(45) Joe: “Who is going to drive me back home?”
Mary: “Well, there’s [ Focus my brother, or the guy standing on the corner].”
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