OBS. 30.—­It is said by some grammarians, that, “The adverb there is often used as an expletive, or as a word that adds nothing to the sense; in which case, it precedes the verb and the nominative; as, ’There is a person at the door.’”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 197; Ingersoll’s, 205; Greenleaf’s, 33; Nixon’s Parser, p. 53.  It is true, that in our language the word there is thus used idiomatically, as an introductory term, when we tell what is taking, or has taken, place; but still it is a regular adverb of place, and relates to the verb agreeably to the common rule for adverbs.  In some instances it is even repeated in the same sentence, because, in its introductory sense, it is always unemphatical; as, “Because there was pasture there for their flocks.”—­1 Chron., iv, 41.  “If there be indistinctness or disorder there, we can have no success.”—­Blair’s Rhet., p. 271. “There, there are schools adapted to every age.”—­Woodbridge, Lit.  Conv., p. 78.  The import of the word is more definite, when emphasis is laid upon it; but this is no good reason for saying, with Dr. Webster, that it is “without signification,” when it is without emphasis; or, with Dr. Priestley, that it “seems to have no meaning whatever, except it be thought to give a small degree of emphasis.”—­Rudiments of E. Gram., p. 135.

OBS. 31.—­The noun place itself is just as loose and variable in its meaning as the adverb there.  For example; “There is never any difference;” i.e., “No difference ever takes place.”  Shall we say that “place,” in this sense, is not a noun of place?  To take place, is, to occur somewhere, or anywhere; and the unemphatic word there is but as indefinite in respect to place, as these other adverbs of place, or as the noun itself.  S. B. Goodenow accounts it a great error, to say that there is an adverb of place, when it is thus indefinite; and he chooses to call it an “indefinite pronoun,” as, “’What is there here?’—­’There is no peace.’—­’What need was there of it?’” See his Gram., p. 3 and p. 11.  In treating of the various classes of adverbs, I have admitted and shown, that here, there, and where, have sometimes the nature of pronouns, especially in such compounds as hereof, thereof, whereof; but in this instance, I see not what advantage there is in calling there a “pronoun:”  we have just as much reason to call here and where pronouns—­and that, perhaps, on all occasions.  Barnard says, “In the sentence, ‘There is one glory of the sun,’ &c., the adverb there qualifies the verb is, and seems to have the force of an affirmation, like truly”—­Analytical Gram., p. 234.  But an adverb of the latter kind may be used with the word there, and I perceive no particular similarity between them:  as, “Verily there is a reward for the righteous.”—­Psal., lviii, 11. “Truly there is a glory of the sun.”