7 - Demonstratives

Summary

Chapter 7 presents a context-based unitary analysis of demonstratives in English. Existing work reveals a wide and disparate range of effects associated with choice of demonstrative, and in this chapter, it is argued that these various and wide-ranging communicated effects are derived pragmatically. Procedures are proposed for both the proximal and distal demonstrative determiners, and a range of examples are discussed. It is argued that all of the identified uses and functions of demonstratives derive from the same underlying procedures, and that these procedures can interact with the discourse context to create effects that go beyond simply resolving reference. Examples from advertising and political discourse are discussed along with literary examples, and a range of stylistic effects are identified and explained on the procedural, relevance-based analysis.