[Grammar] There's somebody wants to see you.

[yuriya]

Is this sentence below grammatical? Why is the relative pronoun missing?

There's somebody wants to see you.

Thanks in advance.

 

[philadelphia]

Is this sentence below grammatical? Why is the relative pronoun missing?

There's somebody wants to see you.

Thanks in advance.

I would say there's somebody wanting to see you or there's somebody who wants to see you or another way there's somebody waiting for you

Not a teacher at all

 

[TheParser]

Is this sentence below grammatical? Why is the relative pronoun missing?

There's somebody wants to see you.

Thanks in advance.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Yuriya.

(1) Another great question.

(2) Dear Professor Curme says (if I understand him correctly) it is

not "bad" English. It is a construction that we do not use today

-- except perhaps in some varieties of English. The good professor

says it is inaccurate to say that the relative pronoun is missing. He

says (I hope that I understand him correctly) that it is simply another

kind of construction (he calls it "asyndetic relative construction).

(3) The professor, as usual, gives many examples from "older" English:

I haue a neece IS A MERCHANTS WIFE. (Written in the year 1600)

I bring him news WILL RAISE HIS DROOPING SPIRITS. (1678)

There isn't one of us REALLY KNOWS WHAT'S SHE DOING IT FOR.

(4) The professor (writing in the 1930's) says that this construction

is "still" popular in Irish English.

(5)Today, of course, we need to use a relative pronoun in your sentence.

But Professor Curme reminds us not to call sentences such as the one

that you quoted as "bad." They are different. People who know the

history of English are very slow to call something "bad" because what is

"bad" today may have been "good" earlier in the history of this

magnificent language.

***** Thank you *****

 

[bertietheblue]

I think this sort of structure is quite common in spoken BrEng.

"There's a man on the phone wants to speak to you"

I'm not sure whether this would be considered colloquial or sub-standard these days - what do others think?

 

[yuriya]

I think this sort of structure is quite common in spoken BrEng.

"There's a man on the phone wants to speak to you"

I'm not sure whether this would be considered colloquial or sub-standard these days - what do others think?

Believe me or not, it seems that the British and the Chinese think alike! (BTW, I'm Korean and think like Americans on this one) The following is an excerpt from The Grammar Book by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman. Any more comments from the British Camp on this?

It has long been known that Chinese students use the nonreferential there frequently. Many of these sentences with nonrefential there subjects appear to be missing a relative pronoun.

*There were lot of events happen in my country.

It is understandable why an ESL/EFL teacher might be inclined to correct sentences like this by supplying the relative pronoun that, in addition to making other modifications.

There were a lot of events that happened in my country.

 

[philadelphia]

Sorry for my useless post - above

 

[Barb_D]

Not at all useless! I'd say "There is someone who wants to see you."

Although it is apparently common in spoken BrE to omit the "who" it would sound odd here.

 

[TheParser]

Sorry for my useless post - above

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Philadelphia.

(1) As Ms. Barbara said, your post was very helpful to us all.

(2) You quite rightly pointed out the need of Who" (or even "that")

in standard English nowadays.

***** Thank you *****

 

[yuriya]

Sorry for my useless post - above

Don't be! I appreciate and welcome your ideas any time.