Definition
An existential clause is a clause, having a distinctive grammatical structure, which expresses the real or imagined existence of an entity.
Discussion
An existential clause often introduces an entity into a discourse.
Examples
(English)
The clause construction “there + verb [typically be] + noun phrase” forms an existential clause, as in:
Sources 2
- Crystal 1985, 114
- Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985, 1402, 1408