Definites in There -Sentences

There -sentences in English fall into two types: EXISTENTIAL and LIST. ‘Existential’ there -sentences typically allow only indefinite NP arguments, while ‘list’ there -sentences accept both definites and indefinites. The reason for this difference is that the argument of an existential there -sentence is the NP itself; but the argument of a list there -sentence is the list, not the individual members comprising that list. Once this distinction is noted, only one restriction remains on the arguments of all there -sentences, namely that they be non-anaphoric in the sense discussed in this article.