Che "part of speech" è "there" nelle seguenti frasi?
"There’s a spider in the bath."
"There isn't much time left."
"There are 24 teams competing in the tournament."
"Are there any other suggestions?"
Secondo il dizionario Macmillan, si tratterebbe di un pronome.
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/there
Lo stesso sostiene il Collins:
PRONOUN
There is used as the subject of the verb 'be' to say that something
exists or does not exist, or to draw attention to it.
"There are roadworks between the two towns."
"Are there some countries that have been able to tackle these problems
successfully?"
"There were differences of opinion, he added, on very basic issues."
"There's nothing in this room; there's no bed, and not a single shelf."
"There's no way we can afford to buy a house at the moment."
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/there
Io, viceversa, avrei pensato a un avverbio, come nella classificazione
italiana del "ci" usato insieme al verbo "essere" per indicare
l'esistenza o presenza di qualcosa. Spiega la grammatica Treccani
che...
'Sempre con valore locativo, può accompagnarsi al verbo essere, per
significare l’esistenza di persone o cose il trovarsi di queste in un
determinato ambiente'
"Ci sono moltissime specie di animali e di piante"
"C’è qualcuno in casa?"
"Spero che ci sia pane per tutti"
"C’è ancora tempo"
https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ci_%28La-grammatica-italiana%29/
Il Lexico Oxford e il Cambridge concordano sulla funzione avverbiale di
"there" in questo tipo di frasi.
ADVERB
usually there is/are
Used to indicate the fact or existence of something.
"there's a restaurant around the corner"
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/there
there adverb (INTRODUCING SUBJECT)
used to introduce the subject of a sentence, especially before the
verbs be, seem, and appear:
"There's someone on the phone for you."
"There's no doubt who is the best candidate."
"I took out my wallet but there was no money in it."
"By the time I got back, there was no food left."
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/there?q=there_1
Terza possibilità: secondo Shurley, blog grammaticale, "there" è un
"expletive".
Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, the word there shows
up in a sentence as an *expletive*. If you’re not familiar with this
term, allow me to explain. An expletive is an “extra word” that is not
grammatically related to the rest of the sentence. Here’s an example
sentence. Read it carefully and locate the simple subject:
There are some pencils in my desk drawer.
The word there is not the subject of the sentence; the simple subject
is pencils. There is being used as an expletive and serves to get the
sentence moving. Any time a sentence begins with the word there, the
true subject will be farther on in the sentence, so don’t be fooled!
Another way to determine if the word there is being used as an
expletive is to rewrite the sentence without using it. If you can
rewrite it without losing any meaning, you will know you’re correct.
Notice how the sentence meaning does not change when I leave out the
word there:
Some pencils are in my desk drawer.
https://blog.shurley.com/blog/2019/5/30/grammar-time-what-part-of-speech-is-the-word-there
Anche:
Expletive Constructions
"[A] device for emphasizing a particular word (whether the normal
complement or the normal subject) is the so-called expletive
construction, in which we begin the sentence with 'It is' or 'There
is.'
https://www.thoughtco.com/expletive-grammar-term-1690694
Per un elenco delle Parts of Speech:
Nouns
Articles
Verbs and Verbals
Pronouns
Adjectives
Adverbs
Conjunctions
Interjections
Expletives
https://www.athabascau.ca/write-site/english-grammar-handbook/basic-grammar/index.html