Abstract

To be required for some grammatical properties, dummy elements have lost their lexical meaning. They have no sense of their own. However, such items have meaning in context. They play essential roles in the general semantic structure of sentences.

This study attempts to confirm that dummy constructions can have some semantic meaning and there is no matter how abstract they are. It also highlights the functions of inserting these elements to satisfy the structural and semantic needs in Charles Dickens’ novel Hard Times.

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