On so-called transitive expletives in Belfast English

<jats:p>Henry &amp; Cottell (2007) argue that Belfast English (BE) sentences such as<jats:italic>There shouldn't anybody say that</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>There've lots of people passed the test</jats:italic>are transitive expletive constructions (TECs) similar to those that are a feature of Icelandic. They propose that the difference between BE and Standard English (SE) is that whereas expletive<jats:italic>there</jats:italic>is introduced in Spec vP in the latter it is introduced in Spec TP in the former. On the assumption that transitive subjects originate in Spec vP, this entails that expletive<jats:italic>there</jats:italic>cannot co-occur with a transitive verb. While it is clear that BE is different from SE in this area, it is not clear that BE has TECs while SE does not. There are a variety of examples which are acceptable in BE but not SE which do not seem to be TECs. SE also has certain examples which might be called TECs. The result of this is that Henry &amp; Cottell's analysis is not very successful. It seems that what distinguishes BE from SE is not what verbs may follow the associate of the expletive but what elements may precede it. SE allows an associate immediately after<jats:italic>be</jats:italic>, but BE also allows an associate immediately after modals and<jats:italic>have</jats:italic>, and for some speakers<jats:italic>seem</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>likely</jats:italic>as well. The facts can be captured in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar by assuming that<jats:italic>be</jats:italic>has an extra lexical description with expletive<jats:italic>there</jats:italic>as its subject and the associate as an extra complement in both varieties of English, and that modals and<jats:italic>have</jats:italic>, and for some speakers<jats:italic>seem</jats:italic>and<jats:italic>likely</jats:italic>as well, have an extra lexical description of this form in BE. Generalizations can be captured if the pairs of lexical descriptions are analysed as alternative ways of fleshing out basic underspecified lexical descriptions.</jats:p>