demonstratieve

Demonstratieve, in linguistics often referred to as demonstratives, is a grammatical category of words that point to or identify referents in the discourse or in physical space. They encode deixis, relating the utterance to the speaker, listener, time, place, or prior discourse. Demonstratives can function as determiners (demonstrative adjectives) before a noun, or as pronouns that stand alone without a noun.

The core distinction is typically about proximity and number. Many languages contrast proximal forms for referents near the speaker (this, these) with distal forms for referents farther away (that, those). They may also mark singular versus plural, and in some languages gender or clusivity features influence form. English uses this/these as near and that/those as far; Dutch employs dit/deze for near and dat/die for far, with respective plural forms. Other languages extend this system with additional degrees of distance, inclusive/exclusive perspectives, or multiple demonstrative series.

Syntactically, demonstratives have two common roles. As demonstrative adjectives or determiners, they modify a noun (this book, these shirts). As demonstrative pronouns, they refer to a noun phrase already mentioned or understood (this is mine; those were the ones). They can function deictically in the here-and-now contexts or anaphorically across sentences, guiding reference within a discourse.

Cross-linguistic variation is common: some languages encode distance more granularly, add clausal demonstratives, or fuse demonstratives with other pronouns. Overall, demonstratives form a key part of spatial and discourse deixis, helping speakers indicate which entity is being talked about and how it relates to the speaker and listener.