demonstrative

In linguistics, a demonstrative is a word or form that indicates the referent’s place in relation to the speaker, the listener, or the surrounding discourse. Demonstratives can function as determiners that modify a noun (demonstrative adjectives), as pronouns that stand alone, or as demonstrative adverbs that point to location or context. The common English demonstratives are this, that, these, and those, but many languages distinguish more or fewer forms and can mark distance, number, or gender.

Proximity and distance are key dimensions of demonstratives. This and these typically signal objects close to the speaker or within the current discourse, while that and those signal objects farther away or previously mentioned. Some languages also have additional distinctions, such as a medial or in-between demonstrative. Demonstratives can be used deictically to point to concrete referents in space or time, or deictically in discourse to refer to an antecedent. They may function as determiners before nouns (this book) or as pronouns that replace a noun phrase (these are mine). Demonstratives can also serve as adverbs in some languages (here, there) to indicate location.

Etymology and typology: the term derives from Latin demonstrativus, from demonstrare “to point out.” Cross-linguistically, demonstratives form a core part of deictic systems and interact with grammatical categories such as case, number, and gender in many languages. They are distinct from interrogatives and from other markers of definiteness, though some languages fuse demonstratives with articles or other discourse markers to convey specificity and reference.