Demonstratives such as this and that are among the most frequently used words in texts. But what are the factors that determine whether a writer uses one demonstrative form (proximal this) or another ...(distal that)? Here we report a large-scale corpus analysis in three written genres to empirically contrast theories based on differences in referent activation and prominence with a recent proposal suggesting that genre is the main driver of written demonstrative variance. We consistently observe that discourse genre is indeed the main predictor of writers’ demonstrative variation in English text. More specifically, a clear preference for distal demonstratives is found when the addressee is considered more prominent in the given discourse setting (as in news reports), whereas an overall preference for proximal demonstratives is observed when the knowledgeable writer feels more responsibility for the produced discourse themselves, as in an expository context (e.g. wikipedia texts). In such expository contexts, proximal demonstratives hence indicate that the referent is psychologically situated near the writer, whereas in interactional and narrative discourse the writer uses distal demonstratives to reach out to the addressee. These findings shed new theoretical light on some of the most frequently used and studied words in human language.
We propose a unified prominence-based account of the two paradigms of demonstrative pronouns in German: the die- and diese-paradigm. The two types of demonstrative pronouns have been shown to have ...similar referential preferences — avoiding the most prominent referent — but different language register and modality preferences — diese pronouns prefer formal language whereas die pronouns prefer informal language and the spoken modality. They also reveal different strengths in terms of referential shift and last-mentioned antecedent preference. We propose that the perspectival prominence-based account initially proposed by Hinterwimmer & Bosch (2016; 2017) for die pronouns can be extended to incorporate both demonstrative pronouns. Our extended proposal suggests that the perspectivally prominent discourse referent is the highest ranked element on the prominence scale only for die pronouns but not for diese pronouns, and that perspectival prominence can be modulated by evaluative expressions. For diese pronouns, on the other hand, the aboutness topic is the highest ranked discourse referent on the prominence scale and they are not influenced by evaluative expressions. We report two experiments to test our account. The experimental results largely support the predictions of the new unified account.
In this paper, we present experimental evidence from a ‘yes’/‘no’ judgement task and two acceptability rating studies (Experiments 1a-c) for the claim made in Hinterwimmer (2019) that sentences with ...two anaphorically interpreted complex demonstratives are less acceptable than sentences with two anaphorically interpreted definite descriptions and sentences where one of the two previously introduced referents is picked up by a complex demonstrative, while the other one is picked up by a definite description. The results of Experiment 1a and 1b are in principle compatible with the account argued for in Hinterwimmer (2019), according to which the (potentially abstract) demonstrations presupposed by demonstratives may not have overlapping trajectories. However, sentences with two anaphorically interpreted complex demonstratives are not judged as unacceptable as would be expected if they involved a presupposition violation. Therefore, we propose an alternative, economy-based pragmatic account that builds on Ahn (2019) and Nowak (2019). The question of whether the observed pattern is more compatible with the account proposed by Hinterwimmer (2019) or the alternative pragmatic account is directly addressed in a further acceptability rating study (Experiment 1c). The design of that study is similar to that of Experiment 1b, but it includes as fillers both sentences clearly violating a presupposition and sentences violating a pragmatic constraint. Since the ratings for sentences containing two anaphorically interpreted complex demonstratives are closer to the ratings for sentences violating a pragmatic constraint than for sentences violating a presupposition, we conclude that the alternative pragmatic account is preferable to the account by Hinterwimmer (2019).
Malagasy demonstratives appear simultaneously initially and finally within the DP and must be identical: ity boky ity ‘DEM book DEM’ “this book”. We argue that the unusual doubling pattern arises ...from multiple pronunciation of a single demonstrative formative and not from base-generation of two independent formatives. The primary goal is to show that doubling, which has been amply discussed in the verbal domain, particularly in the literature on verb doubling in predicate clefts, also occurs in the nominal domain and can be successfully analyzed with existing theoretical machinery.
Abstract
This paper uses a puzzle arising from cases of felicitous underspecification in uses of demonstratives to motivate a new model of communication using singular terms.
Demonstratives play a crucial role in the acquisition and use of language. Bringing together a team of leading scholars this detailed study, a first of its kind, explores meaning and use across ...fifteen typologically and geographically unrelated languages to find out what cross-linguistic comparisons and generalizations can be made, and how this might challenge current theory in linguistics, psychology, anthropology and philosophy. Using a shared experimental task, rounded out with studies of natural language use, specialists in each of the languages undertook extensive fieldwork for this comparative study of semantics and usage. An introduction summarizes the shared patterns and divergences in meaning and use that emerge.
Slipping in the Inaudible Fischer, Niklas Cyril
Woolf studies annual,
01/2022, Letnik:
28
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Over the course of her career as a writer, Virginia Woolf became increasingly interested in the way words can communicate beyond the meanings assigned to them in dictionaries. In the late essay ...“Craftsmanship,” she describes two functions of language: on the one hand, words convey dictionary meanings; on the other, words are repositories of cultural, historical, and unconscious associations that are much more volatile than lexicographers would have us believe. Broadly speaking, Woolf depicts language as a spectrum, one end occupied by functional or, as she calls it, “useful” language, the other by what she once described as “saturated” language. While Woolf’s exploration of the latter has drawn considerable scholarly attention, her experiments with functional language have largely been ignored. This essay seeks to redress this critical imbalance by providing an analysis of functional language in The Voyage Out and the early essay “Modern Novels,” first published in 1919 and revised and re-published as “Modern Fiction” in the first Common Reader in 1925. Woolf’s first novel exhibits a fascination with language in relation to a category of words not usually deemed literary or subject to the processes of unconscious meaning-formation: deictic expressions or, to be more precise, the demonstratives “this” and “that.” The essay demonstrates how a consideration of functional language in The Voyage Out counters the unquestioned valorization of poeticized language in Woolf studies. Woolf’s debut novel not only warns of the solipsistic tendency of saturated language, but it also testifies to the subtlety with which meaning can be deployed in the most functional and seemingly innocuous words.
Deictic information is present in every language; yet, there are significant differences as to how exactly such information is encoded, yielding different indexical systems across languages. The ...availability of cross-linguistic variation in indexical systems provides a window into the role of contact in shaping grammars: this work contributes to the discussion by investigating whether contact plays any role in determining the grammar of indexicality in heritage varieties. This study has a two-fold aim. Empirically, it investigates ternary demonstrative systems in heritage southern Italo-Romance varieties: on the basis of comprehension and production data, these systems are shown to be in the process of undergoing change. Theoretically, it underscores the insights that the combined microcontact and diachronic perspective provides for the understanding of variation and change in heritage languages: while, at face value, the elicited heritage data seem to indicate that demonstratives are affected by contact, pairwise comparisons across heritage varieties and diachronic observations lead to rejecting a plain contact-induced explanation and to conclude, instead, that deictic elements are largely unaffected by contact and that their change in heritage varieties is, rather, endogenous.
Demonstrative pronouns in German occur in various paradigms such as die, diese, jene, diejenige, dieselbe, etc. Among these only the most frequent paradigm, die, has received attention from ...psycholinguistic research. In this paper, we investigate constraints on demonstrative pronouns from the diese paradigm. Diese-demonstratives are considered to be limited to formal language by native speakers, and in contemporary grammar they are assumed to prefer the most recent or the last mentioned antecedent. If these constraints really hold, diese-demonstratives seem to behave very differently from die-demonstratives which have been shown to prefer the antecedent that is not maximally prominent. We report three forced-choice experiments that test the constraints of language formality, order of mention and prominence through subjecthood. The results demonstrate that diese-demonstratives strongly prefer the formal language register as expected by native speakers. However, instead of the last mentioned antecedent, they prefer the antecedent that is non-prominent in terms of subjecthood which is similar to the preference that has been reported in the literature for die-demonstratives. We suggest that in a restricted context diese-demonstratives are formal counterparts of die-demonstratives.
An analysis of the use of demonstratives in isiZulu (izabizwana zokukhomba) has shown that they go beyond the known deictic functions of demonstratives as used in other languages like English. In ...isiZulu, demonstratives tend to also denote specificity, a function normally performed by the definite article in English. This article, therefore, compares the functions of articles in English to those of demonstratives in isiZulu, with the aim to demonstrate the similarities in terms of use between the two languages. This added function of demonstratives, it is argued, may account for some of the errors in English second language learners’ use of articles, as evidenced by data from written exercises of learners whose first language is isiZulu. The findings suggest that second language learners of English tend to confuse articles because of the differences between the two languages, especially during their (learners’) interlanguage stage.Contribution The article highlights a significant difference in the use of demonstratives between English and isiZulu due to the added function of specificity in isiZulu demonstrative (isabizwana sokukhomba) which is performed by the definite article in English. It also demonstrates how, without an article system, isiZulu can convey meaning like any language with an article system.
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