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This paper presents an illustration of the claim that it is possible to treat a semantic problem with the use of syntactic data only, i.e. without appealing to extralinguistic considerations. The example in question is concerned with French clauses constructed around Il y a, for exampleIl y a un tank dans le jardin(There is a tank in the garden)The event interpretation of such a clause can be explained by the pseudo-sentential clause construction Il y a que S, which is formally related to such clauses.