Anticipatory It
It seemed that she would keep his word
In this clause, the subject is called extraposed subject. It = "dummy subject" or "formal subject". It occupies the place typically occupied by a grammatical subject but that-clause contains the content of the subject.
It is obvious she is right is indeed a transformation of
That she is right is obvious (rarely used)
In pattern with introductory it, there is always a finite or non-finite clause occurring at the end of the pattern.
Non-finite pattern (ing and to-inf)
Subject (It) + Verb + Complement (Noun Group) + -ing clause
It is no fun doing things alone
It is no use complaining
Subject (It) + Verb + Object (NG) + Object (NG) + to infinitive clause
It cost me a fortune to rebuild the house
It will do me good to have a rest
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Anticipatory It + Verb Phrase
(usually passive)-that clause
It can be seen.....
It has been shown ....
It should be noted......
Anticipatory It + Adjective Phrase (followed by -that clause/to inf clause)
It is possible to .....
It is possible that ....
It is likely that .....
It is important to ......
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The impersonal "It" has three uses :
1. Introductory "It"
2. Emphatic "It"
3. Anticipatory "It"
Introductory "It" --> we speak about day, date, time, weather, distance, place or situation
It + Verb (be) + Subject Complement (Noun/Noun Phrase/Adjective)
It is Monday.
It is cold here.
It is five miles from here to the mosque.
Emphatic "It" --> to emphasize a particular piece of information
He graduated in 2023. --- It was in 2023 that he graduated (Cleft sentence)
Anticipatory "It"
It fills the subject position but it is only the notional subject of the sentence anticipating the real subject.
It + Verb (be) + Adjective Complement+ ( for + N/Pronoun) + infinitive phrase
It is difficult for most people to own up their mistakes --- For most people to own up their mistakes is difficult
It seems best to inform the police ---To inform the police seems best
The anticipatory "It" may take a gerund or gerundial phrase instead of an infinitive phrase
It was well worth taking up the contract
It was fun working in a garage during summer holidays
Reference :
Hunston, S., Francis, G., 2000, Pattern Grammar : A Corpus-driven Approach to the Lexical Grammar of English, John Benjamins Publishing Company
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G.,N., Conrad, S., Finegan, E., 2021, Grammar of Spoken and Written English, John Benjamins Publishing Company
Narayanaswamy, K.R., 2004, A Teacher's Grammar of English, Orient Longman
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