What does "there" mean?

That's it. Maybe someone else can explain that particular useage. I can't, but yes, that's how it is used.

television / would be cheaper . . and . . consumers / would prefer\ it . .. and there / would be incentive

This is an existential there, not an adverbial there describing position. It says 'exists', and it is used in English to introduce a new subject; this subject is delayed.

eg. There are three tennis balls on the table. --> Three tennis balls exist on the table

... and no economic incentive to cut emissions would exist.

OR

... and economic incentive to cut emissions would not exist.

You can tell that this 'there' doesn't mean position/place, Fansy, because the 'there' combines with a verb, in this case a verb phrase, 'would be'.

If it being used as an adverbial 'there', there would have to be another subject;

and there, it would be processed.

Here, we can tell that 'there' is referring to some place previously described and it is an adverb of place. The pronoun 'it' serves as the actual subject again, describing something that was previously mentioned.

it's a subject of existence

The dictionary refers to "there" as a pronoun used to introduce a clause or a sentence, but "there" is part of the phrase "there would be" which is a form of the phrases "there is" and "there are" like in fansy's other example:



I don't see how it is a pronoun in that position, however. But if it isn't a pronoun, what is it?

What might be the difference between the there of 'there would be ...' and the there of 'there is no problem', IB?

there is no problem -->> no problem exists -->> no problem is in existence

There isn't [another example] a difference aside from the conjugation of "be".

I was merely using "there is no problem" as an example of the phrase "there is".

Are you saying that "there" is a pronoun in those phrases?

If it is, and I'm not saying it is, it's an odd pronoun. Though there are times when we repeat the noun and pronoun in the same sentence,

Carter, he is ... .

normally a pronoun fills in for a noun.

Existential 'there' is obviously a special use for English. Was there any explanation for calling it a pronoun?

It just stated that "there" is a pronoun used to introduce a clause or a sentence, and gave two examples:

"There are numerous items".

"There must be another exit".

But in those instances "there" isn't used alone. It's part of the phrases "there are", "there must be" and, as in fansy's example, "there would be".

Also, in the dictionary examples, "there are" and "there must be" are modifying the noun phrases "numerous items" and "another exit", respectively.

I don't think "there" is a pronoun at all in these examples.

But if it isn't, what part of speech is it?

I guess it depends how you parse the examples. The first two words of "I gave it to Bill" wouldn't be parsed as "I want" [some grammatical structure unknown to me], but as, "I" [subject] "gave" [verb] 'it' [direct object] "to" [preposition] Bill" [indirect object].

There [existential subject] are [verb] numerous [adjective] items [delayed true subject].



It's a pronoun, in that it's filling in for the actual subject which is delayed.
parse a sentence gives it much as I did, above,

Constituent tree:

(S (NP There)
(VP are
(NP numerous items)))

http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/link/construct-page-4.cgi#submit

===================

+-------Opt-------+
+-SFp-+ +----A---+
| | | |
there are.v numerous.a items.n

[explanation of SF]

SF
SF is a special subject link-type used for certain "filler" subjects
like "it" and "there". It interacts heavily with
post-processing. Post-processing is used both to enforce that
certain predicates may not be used with "filler" subjects, and
also that certain predicates may only be used with such
subjects. SF is also used with a few special phrases like "to"
and "that" phrases when used as subjects.

Contents
1. "Filler-it"
2. Constraints on "filler-only" phrases
3. "There" as a subject: SFst and SFp
4. Special subjects: SFsx

"Filler-it"
Many verbs and adjectives take complements like "to+infinitive"
or "that+clause" (see "TO"; see "TH"):

1. I expect that he will go
2. I am glad that he is going
3. He wants to go
4. He is eager to go

However, there are certain adjective-complement and
verb-complement phrases that may only be used with the subject