Concept: existential clause

Definition

An existential clause is a °clause construction in which an °indefinite nominal is said to be in some location.

Comments

The definition is from Haspelmath (2025: 18). The nominal that is said to be in some location can be called "existent" (another term found in the literature is "pivot"). ❡

Note that the location can be implicit (and inferred from the context), but that "pure existence" is not included in the definition here (it is called "tautotic"). ❡

Since existential clauses are not really about "existence" but rather about location, Creissels (2019) proposes the term "inverse-locational" (at least for a subset of existential clauses, those that have "special syntax"). See also Creissels et al. (2016: §4.4).

Croft's comparative concept

existence event (SEM):

existence event (SEM) = a situation in which the existence of some entity is presented. Existential situations favor a thetic construal. Example: There are apples in the kitchen expresses the existence of the relevant set of apples. (Section 11.3.1)

Wikipedia

existential clause

SIL Glossary

existential clause

Quotation

"Though the term “existential sentence” goes back at least as far as Jespersen (1924: 155) and is used in descriptions of many languages to refer to a designated construction, it is difficult to identify exactly what these constructions have in common crosslinguistically. Following McNally (2011: 1829), the term is used here to refer to sentence types that are “noncanonical,” whether due to some aspect of their syntax or the presence of a distinguished lexical item (e.g., Spanish hay) and that are “typically used to express a proposition about the existence or the presence of someone or something.” " (McNally 2016: 2011)

Sources

Creissels 2019; Haspelmath 2025; Creissels et al. 2026; McNally 2016; Jespersen 1924; McNally 2011