I provide first a semantic characterization of just which DPs occur in Existential There (ET) sentences. Extensionally the characterization improves on some recent ones (Zucchi 1995, McNally 1997) in accounting for the existence of ET sentences like

1. There are fewer male than female students in the class
2. There aren't more men than women in the class.

We show that the characterization is extensionally equivalent to (1) an account proposed in Keenan (1987) and (2) one of the accounts in Higginbotham (1987). Our characterization is semantic in that it is given in terms of denotations of expressions rather than pragmatic, given in terms of notions like common ground, context sets and felicity conditions (Zucchi 1995).

Second, I provide a condition on the interpretation of ET sentences which, I claim, explains the fact that the DPs natural in these sentences are just those characterized. Finally I draw attention to one generalization of ET contexts, namely Existential Have Sentences such as John has two brothers in Moscow, which I feel is insufficiently accounted for by my explanation.