Thread: What's with `there`s in `There are people out there who there's just nobody for them`

Originally Posted by Alex80

P.S.
Пожалуй "they say there is magic land of wisdom out there" спрягает всё вышесказанное чтобы на русском быть именно что "говорят, что где то есть волшебная страна вселенской мудрости".

Спасибо, с этим проблем нет, я пометил эту часть, как выполненную (зеленым).
Осталась вторая, самая странная часть. Хотелось бы услышать ответ от нативно-говорящего человека, ибо это ну совсем странная-странность с `who there's`

Originally Posted by nexen

Осталась вторая, самая странная часть. Хотелось бы услышать ответ от нативно-говорящего человека, ибо это ну совсем странная-странность с `who there's`

Сильно подозреваю, что это опять таки просто разговорное сокращение на интонациях и на самом деле имелось ввиду: "...who are like there is...", находится пример: Rob Bliss' Urban Experiments "...a lot of kids who are like 'There is nothing to do in Grand Rapids'...".
Т.е. "а он такой типа 'да я не знаю о чём вы вообще'...".

P.S. Regarding the сокращение of "is" and "has" to 's -- yes, this is correct and common. Just off the top of my head, here are some classic song lyrics:

"There's a place for us -- somewhere a place for us!" (i.e., "there is a place") -- 1956
"There's got to be a morning after ("there has got to be", meaning "there must be") -- 1973
"She's got it, yeah baby, she's got it" (i.e., "she has got it", meaning "she has it") -- 1968

However, in a sentence like "She has beautiful eyes," the word "has" CANNOT be contracted to 's -- at least, not in normal US English (though it was possible in old-fashioned UK English, I think).

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

P.S. Regarding the сокращение of "is" and "has" to 's -- yes, this is correct and common. Just off the top of my head, here are some classic song lyrics:

"There's a place for us -- somewhere a place for us!" (i.e., "there is a place") -- 1956
"There's got to be a morning after ("there has got to be", meaning "there must be") -- 1973
"She's got it, yeah baby, she's got it" (i.e., "she has got it", meaning "she has it") -- 1968

However, in a sentence like "She has beautiful eyes," the word "has" CANNOT be contracted to 's -- at least, not in normal US English (though it was possible in old-fashioned UK English, I think).

I can't actually think of any sentence with "has" as the main verb (not "has got "/"has gotten" or anything like "has seen" etc.), where that contraction would be possible.

PS. It might have to do with the fact that making such a contraction would bring in certain ambiguousness in a lot of cases. Consider "he's a slave", for instance. Now, is he free or not? =))

Originally Posted by Eric C.

I can't actually think of any sentence with "has" as the main verb (not "has got "/"has gotten" or anything like "has seen" etc.), where that contraction would be possible.

Not in any variety of English spoken today, I think. But I've seen British-made movies set in "the old days" (say, before WW2) where you would hear constructions like:

"I've three apples, you've some cheese, and he's a loaf of bread."

Of course, the third part of the sentence sounds ambiguous and funny -- "he HAS a loaf of bread", or "he IS a loaf of bread"? -- and as Eric says, I think this ambiguity may explain why, in today's English, you can't contract "have" or "has" when they're the main verb (only when they're functioning as auxiliary verbs). Instead, we'd say either: "I have three apples, you have some cheese, and he has a loaf of bread" or "I've got three apples, you've got some cheese, and he's got a loaf of bread." (The second variant sounds more informal and colloquial.)