Discourse deixis Demonstrative
as mentioned above, while primary function of demonstratives provide spatial references of concrete objects (that (building), (table)), there secondary function: referring items of discourse. example:
this sentence short.
this mean: happy him.
that way of looking @ wrong.
i said dress looked hideous. didn t that.
in above, sentence refers sentence being spoken, , pronoun refers spoken; way refers mentioned way , , pronoun refers content of previous statement. these abstract entities of discourse, not concrete objects. each language may have subtly different rules on how use demonstratives refer things spoken, being spoken, or spoken. in english, (or those) refers spoken, while (or these) refers spoken (or, occasionally, being simultaneously spoken).
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