A typology is presented of parameters of variation associated with three main types of demonstratives: nominal (corresponding to demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives in traditional terminology), local adverbial and verbal. The paper surveys their basis characteristics; forms (including relationship to articles and interrogatives); deictic, syntactic, anaphoric and other functions; and types of reference — spatial, height and stance, visibility, etc. There is a case study of demonstratives in Dyirbal, and an array of questions which can usefully be pursued when investigating demonstratives in a given language.
Cited by (102)
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2021. Syntactic position, qualitative features and extended demonstrative functions: Dagaare distal demonstratives nὲ and lὲ in interactional discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 182 ► pp. 265 ff.
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Forker, Diana
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2020. Elevation as a Grammatical and Semantic Category of Demonstratives. Frontiers in Psychology 11
Moyse-Faurie, Claire
2019. Similarity, comparison of equality and verbal manner demonstratives in Polynesian languages. Faits de Langues 50:1 ► pp. 135 ff.
Post, Mark W.
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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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