The following sentences are from a certain thesis:
It is generally claimed that the notional subject of exitential sentences must be indefinite:
a. There is a book on the table.
b.*There is the book on the table.
But we can’t always say that the definite NPs are not allowed to occur in the portion of the notional subject of existential sentences:
c. There was the shadow of a big dog in the dark.
d. There’s the possibility that John will come in time.
These NPs (c,d) contain the postposed modifiers. In each case, as a result of restriction by modifiers, the referent becomes identifiable.
However, there are some exceptions I found in my book:
e.*There’s the book of linguistics on the desk.
f.*There’s the possibility for John to go abroad.
My first observation is that sentences b., e. and f. would work with an indefinite article. Seen from a semantic level, the definite article in b. doesn’t work work because the concept of ‘book’ in a simple existential sentence is different from shadow or possibility. e. and f. are not possible because of object clustering (concourse) which are best avoided in English. ‘There is the book that John left here’ or ‘There’s a possibility for John to go abroad’ would work though. It seems odd to combine a definite article in f. because ‘the’ future possibility is not as clearly defined as it is in d.
Thank you, Ralf!
But…your answer seems to be different from those of the other people I asked.
They said they don’t see anything wrong with the sentences(e,f).
The following is an e-mail one of them sent me.
e.*There’s the book of linguistics on the desk.
If you were searching for the book and finally found it, you could say this.
f.*There’s the possibility for John to go abroad.
If you came across a way that John could go abroad.
For example if he didn’t have enough money, but you saw a part-time job advertised that would suit him.
He also said this:
Sentences C,D,E and F would all usually use “a”, however in the situations I explained you would use “the”.
The two sentences C and D would not really fit the situations I explained about sentences E and F, so C and D would always use “a”.
…What do you think about this?
I’m totally confused…
Yes, but the sentence (alone) does not sound natural.
Same here. You’d need context, and still ‘a possibility’ would sound more natural. Alternative: ‘The possibility for John to go abroad has eventually come up.’
I can’t say that I agree. I would still use ‘a’ in e. and f. (as well as in b.).