Expression in modern english

2. It as the subject of the sentence.

When the pronoun it used as the subject of a sentence it may represent a living being or a thing: then it is a national subject sometimes however, it does not represent any living being or thing and performs a purely grammatical function: then it is a formal subject. A when it is a national subject the pronoun it has the following meanings:
1.It stands for a definite thing or some abstract idea-the personal it.
1.Go Oliver, go, that was Jenny`s voice above the crowd, it was crazily, beautifully violent. E.S.L.S. p5.
Olg`a Oliver, olg`a, bu olamon orasidagi Jennyning ovozi edi, u ishqibozona, chiroyli va kuchli edi.
2. I loved Sylvia devotedly, but I was jealous, absurdly jealous of anyone at wham she would smile. It amused her at first.
Men Silviani o`zimni fido etib sevardim, ammo men rashk qilardim. Bu uni avvaliga kulgisini qistadi.
3. There was a twinkle in this eye. It was a certain sign that Hercule Poirot was pleased himself. A.Ch.Sh.S. p35.
Uning ko`zlarida porlash bor edi.
Bu Herkule Poyrot o`zidan mamnun bo`lganligining o`ziga xos alomati edi.
4. Good! Know, then, that I`m of the police. “Come you find me that other box! “Without doubt, monsieur. It will be in the dustbin. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 50.
Yaxshi, men politsiyadanman.Menga o`sha boshqa qutini topib bera olasizmi?Shubhasiz janob. U axlat qutisida bo`ladi.
5. When I got into changing room, it was empty. E.S.L.S. p 21.
Men kiyim almashtirish xonasiga kirganimda, u bo`sh edi.
2.It points out some person or thing expressed by a predicative noun, or it a refers to the thought contained in a preceding statement thus having a demonstrative meaning-the demonstrative it.
1.It would be a horrible scandal. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 31.
Bu mudhish mojoro bo`ldi.
2.It is not Mr Parker. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 33.
Bu Janob Parker emasdi.
3. It is a poison? I asked. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 53.
Bu zaharmi?Men so`radim.
4. It was the chocolate box that started me on the track and yet up to the end I failed consistenly to keep it`s real significance! A.Ch.Sh.S p 56.
Meni iziga tushirgan narsa shokolad qutisi edi va men hamon uning tub mohiyatiga yetolmayapman.
5.It was Old-stony face. E.S.L.S. p 11.
B. Sometimes the pronoun it is a formal subject i.e. it doesn`t present any person or thing.
Here we must distinguish.
1) The impersonal it.
2) the introductory it.
3) the emphatic it.
1.The impersonal it is used to denote natural phenomena (such as the state of the weather, etc). or that which characterizes the environment. In such sentences the predicate is either a simple one, expressed by a verb denoting the state of the weather, or a compound nominal one, with an adjective as predicative.
Ex: 1. It was bright and sunny morning F.F.T.
Yorqin va quyoshli tong edi.
2.It was cold and dark outside. E.S.L.S. p 17.
Tashqari sovuq va qorong`u edi.
3.It was very peaceful. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 86.
Juda tinch edi.
4.It was a clear, still evening. A.Ch. 106.
Tiniq va sokin kech edi.
5.It often rains in autumn.
Kuzda tez-tez yomg`ir yog`adi.
6.It is cold in winter.
Qishda sovuq bo`ladi.
7.It is stuffy in here.
Bu yer dim.
Note. The state of the weather can also be expressed by sentences in which the subject denoting the state of things is introduced by the construction there is. In such sentences the noun introduced by the construction there is. In such sentences the construction there is the subject.
Ex:1There was a heavy frost last night.
2.There was a fine rain falling over the trees, the flowers and the people sitting on the benches in the garden.
3. to denote time and distance and quantity.
1.It was half-past eight. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 82.
2.It was still some minutes of nine when he once more approached the garden door. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 86.
U bog` eshigiga yaqinlashganida hamon to`qqizdan bir necha minut o`tgan edi.
3.It was five and twenty to nine. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 85.
Yigirma beshta kam to`qqiz edi.
4.It was to be night. A.Ch.Sh.S. p 81.
Tun edi.
5. It was quarter to nine. A.Ch.Sh.S. p86
O`n beshta kamto`qqizedi.
6.It is a long way to the station.
Stantsiyagachauzoqyo`l.
7.It was a wild night. A.Ch.Sh.S. p48
4. The intructory or anticipatory it introduces the real subject.
Ex: 1. It is common knowledge that the duns will be knocking down our door at any time. C.M.B. p8.
Qarz beruvchilar istalgan paytd aeshigimizni taqillatishi ma`lum narsa.
2.It is embrassing to acknowledge that my parents are such hardened gamester they would not spare a shilling for a governess or bother with any schooling for their only dowghter. C.M.B. p 12.
3.It is good to med you again, Mrs. Jenkins. C.M.B. p 174.
Siz bilan yana ko`rishish yaxshi Jenkins xonim.
4.It was amazing to Alex to see the volcano that existed beneath the reserved exterior of the man she had thought she knew so well. A.Ch.Sh.S. p70"A subject is normally essential in English sentence structure-.-so much so that a dummy subject must sometimes be introduced (e.g. It is raining). Subjects are, however, usually missing from imperative sentences (e.g.Listen!) and may be ellipted in an informal context (e.g. See you soon)." (Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner, Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1994) Examples of Null Subjects "Don't know as these shoes'll be much good. It's a hard road, I been down there before." (Davies in The Caretaker by Harold Pinter. Theatre Promotions Ltd., 1960) "Keep your trap shut and do your job. After the war's over, we'll straighten out whatever's gone wrong." (Harry Turtledove, The Big Switch. Del Rey, 2011) "Laura . . . was leaning up against the bathroom counter while I sat on the closed toilet seat, my fingers deep in the pile of suds on Timmy's head. "'Bubbles, Momma. Want more bubbles.'"
(Julie Kenner, Carpe Demon. Jove, 2006) "He went up to one shelf, and scanned it. 'Hmm, seems to be a section missing,' he said."
(David Bilsborough, A Fire in the North. Tor Books, 2008) "'You must think us very foolish, Mr. Crackenthorpe,' said Craddock pleasantly. 'We can check on these things, you know. I think, if you'll show me your passport--' "He paused expectantly."'Can't find the damned thing,' said Cedric. 'Was looking for it this morning. Wanted to send it to Cook's.'"
(Agatha Christie, 4:50 from Paddington. Collins, 1957)
"He knows I don't want to watch the house being dismantled, don't want to see it emptied. Can't bear to see the bed where I've read myself to sleep every night, where we've made love thousands of times, disassembled. Can't bear to see the desk where I've written my books wrapped up and carted away.Can't bear to see the kitchen stripped of all my cooking equipment--my 'toys.'"
(Louise DeSalvo, On Moving. Bloomsbury, 2009)
"She could barely see straight. And then, 'Leaving so soon?' a voice asked. It startled her, not just because it was unexpected, but because it was as if the voice had come from inside of her head."
(D.V. Bernard, How to Kill Your Boyfriend [in 10 Easy Steps]. Strebor Books, 2006)
"'I suggest that you retire and cool off a little.' "'Cool off, hell.' The client rubbed the chair arms with his palms, eyeing Wolfe."
(Rex Stout, Champagne for One. Viking, 1958)
Three Types of Null Subjects in English
"[T]he picture relating to the use of null subjects is complicated by the fact that, although English does not have finite null subjects . . ., it has three other types of null subject.
"One is the kind of imperative null subject found in imperatives such as Shut up! and Don't say anything! . . .
"Another is the kind of nonfinite null subject found in a range of nonfinite clauses in English (i.e. clauses containing a verb which is not marked fortense and agreement), including main clauses like Why worry? and complement clauses like those bracketed in I want [to go home] and I like [playing tennis] . . .."A third type of null subject found in English can be called a truncated null subject, because English has a process of truncation which allows one or more words at the beginning of a sentence to be truncated (i.e. omitted) in certain types of style (e.g. diary styles of written English and informal styles of spoken English). Hence in colloquial English, a question like Are you doing anything tonight? can be reduced (by truncation) to You doing anything tonight? and further reduced (again by truncation) to Doing anything tonight? Truncation is also found in abbreviated written styles of English: for example, a diary entry might read Went to a party. Had a great time. Got totally smashed (with the subject I being truncated in each of the three sentences)."

(Andrew Radford, Analysing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach. Cambridge University Press, 2009) "Several scholars have argued that the null subject phenomenon is a universal property of child language (Hyams 1983, 1986, 1992; Guilfoyle 1984; Jaeggli and Hyams 1988; O'Grady et al 1989; Weissenborn 1992 among others). According to these arguments, there is an initial period in child L1 acquisition during which thematic (referential) lexical subjects are optional and lexical expletive subjects are entirely absent regardless of whether the target language is a null subject language or not. . . .

• "According to Hyams (1986, 1992) there is a subject-object asymmetry with respect to the omission of arguments in the early grammars of English. Subjects are often dropped but objects, on the other hand, are rarely omitted."
(Usha Lakshmanan, Universal Grammar in Child Second Language Acquisition. John Benjamins, 1994)
• "Although null-subject structures like 'Went to the market' might be common in diary entries and also as truncated responses in conversations, they would be rare in British or American English for the kind of extendedmonologue exemplified by the data from Hui Man.

"In contrast, in Singapore English null-subject sentences are very common. Gupta (1994: 10) lists their occurrence as one of the diagnostic features for colloquial Singapore English, but the educated Singapore English data from Hui Man also exhibits very frequent instances of null-subject structures . . .. (Instances of an omitted subject are indicated by the symbol 'Ø.')

(74) so Ø only tried one or two dishes, Ø didn't really do much cooking
{iF13-b:47} . . .

(76) because during . . . school time Ø hardly had time to watch any movies{iF13-b:213} . . .

. . . It is in fact likely that both Malay and Chinese have influenced the sentence structure of Singapore English (Poedjosoedarmo 2000a), and furthermore it seems true that a feature is most likely to be adopted into a local variety of English when it occurs in more than one indigenous language."
(David Deterding, Singapore English. Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
The Null Subject Parameter (NSP)
• "[T]he NSP derives from the idea that clauses in all languages have subjects . . .. Languages that apparently lack subjects actually have null versions of them (both thematic and expletive), and this parametric setting correlates with a cluster of syntactic properties. The six properties initially related to the NSP included (a) having null subjects, (b) having null resumptive pronouns, (c) having free inversion in simple sentences, (d) availability of 'long wh-movement' of subjects, (e) availability of empty resumptive pronouns in embedded clauses, and (f) presence of overt complementizers inthat-trace contexts . . .. In addition, null and overt subjects are interpreted differently . . .."
The squib 'Some null subjects in English', by Sandy Chung and Chris Potts, is a sample Syntax II squib. It is downloadable in PDF. (Joint squibs are not actually allowed in Syntax II, but we got an exception from the instructor.)
We based this squib in part on results from the literature. No outside research is required for Syntax II squibs. However, any outside resources must be cited.