It's one of the best-known opening sentences in literature. In a hole in the ground, they're lived a hobbit. This sentence and the sentences and paragraphs that follow have a lot of really interesting linguistics in them, and that's what I'd like to explore in this video. Hi, I'm James, and at the Digital Tolkien Project, we use Corpus linguistics, Digital Flawology and more to better understand the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. So this sentence has a single verb in it, the verb lived. If you ask the question, who is doing the living, well, it's clearly a hobbit, and yet a hobbit is not in the subject position in the sentence. The subject position is filled by the word there. This is an example of what's called an existential there, sometimes an expletive or dummy there. And the main reason that existential there's are used is to emphasize a particular situation at a point in time or in a particular location. So for example, you can use an adverbial of time and say once upon a time they lived a princess, or you can use an adverbial of place on the top of the mountain, they lived a giant. And it's that latter case that we have here, a location in a hole in the ground. This isn't the only work of Tolkien's that uses an existential there in the first sentence. In fact, if we go to Lord of the Rings, we see that it begins with an adverb of time when Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced, and then the main clause has an existential there. There was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. Now it may surprise you that the Silmarillion, too, begins with a sentence with an existential there. But what's really interesting is it does not have an adverbial of time or an adverbial of place, which is appropriate given that it's introducing us to Eru, who is outside of time and space. But coming back to the sentence in the Hobbit, I think there are a couple of reasons that an existential there is used in the opening sentence. One is that it evokes fairy tale and folk tale, which often begin with this kind of construction. The other reason is I think it draws the reader into, first of all, the location where introduced to the whole before we're introduced to the Hobbit. And in fact, that's how the next paragraph or two are going to play out. But before we get to that, I want to point out one more thing. And that's the use of the definite and indefinite articles in the sentence. A whole, the ground, A Hobbit. Articles are used in English to indicate whether the reference being made is to something that the reader is already expected to be familiar with, or if it's something that's new. So in this case, the ground has a definite article because we know what the ground is. However, it's a whole we haven't come across before. And of course, we've never come across Hobbits before. And so, our whole and our Hobbit are appropriate here. At this point, we're probably interested in finding out a bit more about the whole, but more importantly, what un-earth Hobbits are. But we're going to have to wait a bit longer on that second point. Because as this paragraph continues, it starts to tell us more about the whole. I want to point out at the end, we get this declaration that it was a Hobbit whole, and that means comfort. What's interesting about this is even though this paragraph is ostensibly just about the whole, it turns out to be telling us something about Hobbits because of this equating of Hobbit holes with comfort. And so, we have actually been told something about these Hobbits that we're keen to find more about, not just about the whole that we're introduced to in the first sentence. But I also want to point out that the verb here is in the present tense. Tolkien could have said it was a Hobbit whole and that meant comfort, but he says that means comfort. And as we're going to find out soon, the narrator wants us to believe that Hobbits and presumably Hobbit holds are still around. And I think that's one of the reasons why the present tense is used here. In fact, a lot of the territorial intrusion that we're going to see coming up is in the present tense. For example, in the next paragraph, which continues to describe the whole, even though we may be desperately wanting to know more about Hobbits at this stage, you'll notice that at various points, there's territorial intrusion. The narrator is adding in within the description, certain facts like that the Hobbit was fond of visitors. He mentions the hill and elaborates on what that means. And in each of these cases, what he seems to be doing is helping us understand more about the Hobbit and Hobbits in general as a result of the description of the place, the whole. In the third paragraph, we finally start to get some information about the Hobbit and were told his name was Baggins. And then we get more territorial intrusion. This is a story of how Baggins had an adventure. And again, this sort of interruption, as he's about to say what Baggins gained, he says, well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end. The next paragraph seems to begin with a description of the mother of the Hobbit that we've just been introduced to. But that's immediately interrupted by a description by the narrator of what Hobbits are like in general. There's use of the first person and present tense a lot in this kind of intrusion. He takes the time to explain a little bit about Hobbits and what they like, what they look like and so on, before saying now you know enough to go on with. As I was saying, and then continues back to describing the mother. And then as if he's worried that we've forgotten who he's being talked about, the narrator inserts of Bilbo Baggins, that is. In the next paragraph, we get a bit more background and another territorial intrusion which I've just described for you. But no, we haven't yet actually gotten to the story. This has all been background, initially about the place, the whole, in the ground. And then the Hobbit in question and some details about his family. We do though, finally come to the actual narrative mainline where the story is taking place. And you'll notice that it begins with this really long adjunct to the main sentence. By some curious chance, one morning long ago, when there was less noise and more green, notice another existential there. The Hobbits were still numerous and prosperous. Bilbo Baggins was standing, so a lot of imperfect there. This is setting up the situation before we get to the actual main clause, the first clause of the mainline narrative, which is Gandalf came by. That's the first clause that's really in the mainline narrative. It's only three words, but then immediately the narrator interrupts and starts to describe a little bit about Gandalf. Again, using the first person, using the present, perfect and so on. This is very characteristic of this kind of narratorial intrusion. And then finally, we get to the actual story continuing. So there's a lot of interesting things going on here. And I just want to point out one fun thing I've recently been rereading Anne of Green Gables and something really struck me about the beginning of that as well. The very first verb in Anne of Green Gables is lived, just like it is in the Hobbit. And the first paragraph of Anne of Green Gables talks not about the person that's been introduced, but rather the place that's been introduced. And in particular here, the Brook. But like the Hobbit, the description of the place is actually telling us something about the person. We then get a paragraph that actually does tell us more about the person. And then finally, we get the start of the narrative mainline. She was sitting there one afternoon in early June. Very similar to the Hobbit, it's one afternoon in early June rather than one morning long ago. But it's interesting that this sort of structure of the lived verb introducing a person and a place, saying more about the place to indicate more about the person, then going into a little bit more detail about the person and then getting into the narrative mainline is something that is shared between the Hobbit and Anne of Green Gables. Anywhere I hope you found this interesting. If you did, throw it a like. If you'd like to watch more videos like this, please subscribe and I'll see you in the next video.