Deixis and reference in the treatment of personal pronouns and demonstratives in Francesco Soave

With an analytical framework based upon Émile Benveniste’s theory on deixis and pronouns and Laura Vanelli’s theory on determiners, I discuss how Francesco Soave (1743–1806) in his grammar Gramatica ragionata della lingua italiana (1771) deals with personal pronouns and demonstratives. As regards personal pronouns, I conclude that Soave, in a short form, basically expresses the same view as Benveniste. As regards the demonstratives I conclude that Soave’s analysis, though presenting the formal system in a classical way, combines original intralinguistic and extralinguistic explanations about the use: he includes an explicitation of deictic elements, and by connecting the use of articles and demonstratives in a reasoning of how reference is determined his deictic analysis of the demonstratives is placed in a framework with modern traits.