impersonal it

Cosmos · Post by **Cosmos** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 3:00 am

Hello, teacher!

Could you please tell me the difference between "impersonal it," "expletives it," "preliminary it," and "anticipatory it"?

Thank you very much.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 4:55 am

An IMPERSONAL 'it' would be one as in It is raining, while an ANTICIPATORY or PRELIMINARY 'it' would be typically the kind that begins a cleft sentence, such as It was here that he died. Essentially any 'it' that occurs with grammatical function but no real referential meaning, including anticipatory 'it', can be termed EXPLETIVE.