demonstrativae

Demonstrativae is a term encountered mainly in linguistic and philological writing. In Latin-based terminologies, demonstratives may be referred to by their Latin plural feminine form, demonstrativae, used to denote the class of demonstratives as a group. In English-language grammars, the standard term is demonstratives.

Definition and role: Demonstratives are words that point to a referent in discourse. They can function as determiners (this book, those cities) or as pronouns (this, those).

Typology and morphology: Demonstratives encode deixis, indicating proximity or distance to the referent, and often number and gender where the language marks them morphologically. Across languages they form systems with proximal, medial, and distal sets and may require agreement with nouns or stand independently.

Usage and examples: In research, demonstrativae may be used to discuss the demonstrative system as a unit across languages, or to refer to the Latin feminine plural form for "the demonstratives." The concept is a cross-linguistic one rather than a single word in most languages.

Etymology and relation: The term derives from Latin demonstrativus, with demonstrativae representing the feminine plural form in Latin dictionaries or grammars. It is not everyday English usage.