refers to a whole class of empty words, not just gratuitous profanities. Most expletives simply fill out the syntax of sentences. The most common are “there are,” “there is,” “there was,” “it is,” “it was,” and so on. Think about a sentence like “there were two airplanes on the runway.” What’s the “there” refer to, anyway? Nada. It just serves to turn “two airplanes on the runway” into a complete sentence.
