Those "dummy" versions are called expletives and include "it" and "there".
Inversion of auxiliaries and these objects occurs in T?C-movement and DP-movement involves the raising of these objects from the specifier position of an embedded VP to the TP specifier in a main clause. A pleonastic variety of these constituents lacks theta-roles and, in English, frequently replaces entire phrases which otherwise serve this clausal role. Those "dummy" versions are called expletives and include "it" and "there". Icelandic is notable for a group of these constituents called "quirky", which often appear in the dative case, though in many Indo-European languages, these constituents are more often marked by the nominative. For 10 points, what are these clausal constituents which in traditional grammar are often contrasted with the predicate?
Inversion of auxiliaries and these objects occurs in T?C-movement and DP-movement involves the raising of these objects from the specifier position of an embedded VP to the TP specifier in a main clause.
{Subject}