Existenciální věty v historické perspektivě: osudy indoevropského *es-

In many languages, existential sentences form a separate type, not only in a semantic sense, but also in their formal aspect (surrounded by a belt of transitional phenomena). In Indo-European, the verb *es- expressed the meaning of existence and was opposed to zero copula. As this verb attained the function of copula (e.g. in West European languages), in many cases the need for new means of earmarking the existential meaning appeared. This led to the formation of constructions of the type there is, il y a, es gibt, hay; this process supported the tendency opposing the prevailing direction of movement towards unification of syntactic structures. Delbrueck, for example, expressed doubts as to where the real subject was in the sentence es ist ein Gott. These facts arouse a special interest from the standpoint of a theory which seeks the dialectical unity of analogising and anomalistic tendencies in the development of languages.