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I almost never see "there is/are" used with personal pronouns. Why do they not get along with each other?

1 There is me in this house. 2 There are them in this town.

I think they are wrong. But why?

However, I can give one example:

Thus, when Christ promises that "where two or three are gathered in His name, there is He in the midst of them,"

IS it the case of "there is +personal pronoun" or is it something different?

user1425
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    Good question. First, the Bible quotation is from a translation, which isn't in Modern English, so it doesn't count. Modern English doesn't do that any more. Second, there is always inserted by a rule (called There-Insertion), and that rule has difficulty applying to personal pronouns because it presupposes existence and location, which is hardly an issue when saying I or they. In other words, there's no reason to use it when the subject already presupposes existence; it's irrelevant and therefore has marginal syntactic affordances. – John Lawler Oct 06 '19 at 18:40
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    'There is me in this house' would most likely be an answer to a question, 'Is there anyone in this house?' –  Oct 06 '19 at 18:47
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    If you add just or only after is or are it would be much more natural. (There is just* me in the house.* There are only* them in the town.*) As such, this isn't a matter of grammar per se but a simple fact of arbitrary use. – Jason Bassford Oct 07 '19 at 02:25
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    @user47014 It could also be used when referring to a picture containing the speaker in the house. – Barmar Oct 08 '19 at 00:00
  • Do you think "There is me on the floor" is OK, if I am describing myself in a picture? – user1425 Jan 22 '20 at 18:13

2 Answers2

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In a comment, John Lawler wrote:

Good question. First, the Bible quotation is from a translation, which isn't in Modern English, so it doesn't count. Modern English doesn't do that any more. Second, there is always inserted by a rule (called There-Insertion), and that rule has difficulty applying to personal pronouns because it presupposes existence and location, which is hardly an issue when saying I or they. In other words, there's no reason to use it when the subject already presupposes existence; it's irrelevant and therefore has marginal syntactic affordances.

tchrist
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Matthew 18:20

KJV For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

NRS For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

In the biblical expression used here, whether it contains an inversion (KJV - Early Modern English) or not (NRS - Modern English), there is used as an adverb and not as a dummy subject, as it is the case in your example, There is me in this house (which, I agree, is unusual and may be possible in very particular contexts as indicated in the comments).

I don't speak Hebrew, but the Greek version of this expression [ἐκεῖ εἰμι - there am] confirms that there means in that place and functions as an adjunct of place. It is emphatic, the sentence could stand without it:

I am among them (NRS)

But in the KJV version, the omission of there will no longer require an inversion:

I am in the midst of them (KJV)

As for the use of there is/are with a personal pronoun, it is indeed rare, but not completely non-existent. A wild-card chart in GNgram shows you

  1. that the use of there is me has recently seen a mild increase.
  2. that often another word (preposition or adverb) will come between there is and the personal pronoun.

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You can find it in literature, as a way of introducing a character:

There is me, and own God-Master. There is Slippers, and Slippers's Own God-Missus. That is all my paws. There is Adar. There is Cookey. (The Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling)

And you could probably use this expression while describing a photo or a video. This following excerpt seems to be describing a scene in a vivid way:

But no, instead there is a mere bishop, there is the king, there is me in a bewitching gown of gray-green silk that shifts colors as I move... (The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory, Page 317).

fev
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