There are (or there is?) too many tourists

PalmaA few weeks ago there was a historic demonstration in Palma against tourist saturation. Beyond the slogans and demands, there was an underlying idea that I believe almost no one disputes: there are too many tourists in the Balearic Islands. Or, at least, that's what most Majorcans would say. However, what if someone claimed there are too many tourists? Should we understand that they are mistaken?

The agreement of the verb ‘haver-hi’ is, probably, one of the best-known doubts in Catalan, to the point that people who are not usually very interested in the language know that something is going on here. Grammatical tradition has recommended constructions such as ‘Hi ha tres persones’ (There are three people), ‘Hi havia moltes coes’ (There were many tails), and ‘Hi haurà canvis’ (There will be changes), even though in an important part of the linguistic domain (especially in Central Catalan and Valencian) forms such as ‘Hi havien moltes persones’ (There were many people) or ‘Hi han massa cotxes’ (There are too many cars) are common. The Grammar of the Catalan language from the Institute of Catalan Studies describes this variation, but continues to consider the construction without agreement as characteristic of the formal registers of the general language.

Suggestive hesitation

However, if we set aside the rules, the doubt leads us to a much more suggestive question. Why is it precisely 'haver-hi' the verb that generates this hesitation? Why would many speakers spontaneously say 'hi han massa turistes' (there are too many tourists), but almost no one, in Eastern Catalan, would say 'ha arribat massa turistes' (too many tourists have arrived)? To understand this, we will start by looking at verbs that, although not 'haver-hi', resemble it in some points.

Let's imagine, for example, that one morning three cruise ships arrive almost at the same time at the port of Palma. Surely someone will say that 'han arribat tres creuers' (three cruise ships have arrived). If two of these cruise ships set sail the next day, we will say that 'n’han partit dos' (two have departed) (or 'partits', if we make the participle agreement). If two sailboats arrive that same day, we will comment that 'han aparegut dos velers més' (two more sailboats have appeared). And if, after a few days, all the ships except one depart, we will say that 'queda un vaixell' (one ship remains).

Now let's change just one thing. The three cruise ships remain in port, but we no longer want to explain that they have arrived, but simply that they are there. Then the most natural phrase for most speakers in the Balearic Islands will be another: 'hi ha tres creuers al port' (there are three cruise ships in the port).

From a structural point of view, the difference between the first sentences and the second is small but significant: in the first case, the verb agrees with the nominal phrase that accompanies it; in the second, it does not. Why?

The first intuition is that 'haver-hi' must be a very different verb from the others. However, reality tells us something else. To begin with, let's note that in none of the sentences ('Han arribat tres creuers', 'N’han partit dos', 'Han aparegut dos velers', 'Queda un vaixell' and 'Hi ha tres creuers al port') does the verb describe an action that someone does to something else. They all present, rather, the appearance, disappearance, movement, or existence of an entity. In syntax, all these verbs are grouped into the same class, that of the so-called inaccusative verbs.

These verbs share several features. To begin with, the nominal phrase usually appears postposed ('Han arribat tres creuers', 'Han aparegut dos velers') and, in all cases, this phrase can be replaced by the pronoun 'en' ('N’han arribat tres', 'N’han aparegut dos'), which is not usual with the subjects of verbs that do denote a voluntary action.

Thus, it is difficult to consider ‘haver-hi’ an exceptional verb, even though it has often been described this way. In this sense, traditionally grammars have explained that it is an impersonal verb and that, therefore, the nominal phrase that accompanies it is not the subject, but the direct object. If we say ‘There are three hikers’, these three hikers would not be the subject of the sentence and, consequently, the verb would not have any element with which it could agree.

Reinterpretation

However, since 'haver-hi' is so similar to the rest of inchoative verbs, over time many speakers have tended to reinterpret the nominal phrase that accompanies it in the same way they analyze that of verbs like 'arribar', 'aparèixer', and 'faltar'. If they say 'Han arribat tres excursionistes' (Three hikers have arrived), 'Han aparegut nous problemes' (New problems have appeared), or 'Han sobrat entrades' (Tickets have been left over), it is perfectly coherent for them to also say 'Hi han tres excursionistes' (There are three hikers). It's not that these speakers have decided to break a rule, but rather that they have ended up assimilating 'haver-hi' to a group of verbs with which it shares much of its behavior.

This reinterpretation, however, has not progressed equally throughout the linguistic domain. In the Balearic Islands, for example, people continue to predominantly say 'Hi ha massa turistes' (There are too many tourists), 'Hi havia molts embossos' (There were many traffic jams), and 'Hi haurà més oportunitats' (There will be more opportunities), while they do make the other inchoative verbs agree ('Han arribat tres creuers' - Three cruise ships have arrived, 'Han desaparegut comerços' - Businesses have disappeared, 'Han aparegut nous hotels' - New hotels have appeared). In this sense, 'haver-hi' continues to function as a small exception within a family of verbs that, in almost everything, behave the same.

In other varieties, such as Central Catalan and Valencian, agreement with 'haver-hi' is part of spontaneous speech and coexists with the construction without agreement. Finally, in Northwestern Catalan, at least traditionally, the lack of agreement also extends to other inchoative verbs, so constructions like 'Arriba trens' (Trains arrive) and 'Ha desaparegut comerços' (Businesses have disappeared) can be heard.

Therefore, when we group 'haver-hi', 'arribar', 'aparèixer', 'faltar', and 'sobrar' within the same verbal class, we do so not because they superficially resemble each other, but because they share much of their syntactic behavior. Agreement is one of the few features that still distinguishes them, but only in a part of Catalan speakers. What is more interesting, then, is not to correct those who say 'hi han', but to understand why this form appears so naturally in a part of Catalan and what relationship it maintains with a whole family of verbs that, in almost everything, behave the same.