demonstrative
- noun
- /dɪˈmɒnstrətɪv/
- Specialized
:
demostrativo
- One way to create cohesion is through the use of references such as pronouns (she, they, it) and demonstratives (this, that).
Examples
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Relations of demonstratives to items to which they refer in the immediate external environment, or in the discourse environment, or in the environment of mutual knowledge, may either be copied or improvised.
Academic text (2001) -
And the demonstrative emerges through that form most appropriate to it: frontality, constantly and systematically employed in all these films.
Academic text (1999) -
Third persons are instead referenced with demonstratives like this or these.
Academic text (2010) -
Demonstratives and indexicals are the most obvious examples of language forms with meanings that depend on context.
Academic text (2001) -
Regarding the soil clinging to it, he declared, "This is the soil of that place." The vague demonstrative was evidently meant to be interpreted as referring to the soil of the clients' own courtyard.
Academic text (2001) -
Apart from pointing, there are many other ways to establish joint attention, making salient or using the natural salience of objects in the external or discourse environment as one refers with demonstratives.
Academic text (2001) -
For Russell, these terms were demonstratives that picked out the contents of immediate experience; for the early Wittgenstein, they were the names in a fully analyzed language that referred to metaphysical simples.
Academic text (1991) -
In English, words like this and that are known as demonstratives because they point to specific items.
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When teaching grammar, it's important to explain how demonstratives like these and those indicate different groups of objects.
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In the sentence, that is a demonstrative pronoun used to refer to a book that she is reading.
Synonyms
34
1.0
A word that replaces a noun, for example he, she, or it
A word used to point to a person, thing or place, for example this and those
Compounds
A word used to point to a person, thing or place, for example this and those
How Specific
- Specialized
- Specialized
8
5.2
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
1.0
- Specialized
5
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
demonstrative = demonstrate (semi-transparent) = demonstrate + ive
While 'demonstrative' as a noun is derived from 'demonstrate', its specific grammatical function as a pronoun is not immediately obvious.
Etymology
Demonstrative comes from the Latin root monstrare 'to show', the same root as demonstrate. So a demonstrative word such as 'this' or 'those' 'points to' or 'shows' a specific person or thing.