Demonstrative Pronoun
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A Demonstrative Pronoun is a Demonstrative Word?/?noun phrase that is a Pronoun to a Noun whose identity is understood from Context.
- Context:
- It can indicate whether the Noun is a Singular Noun or a Plural Noun. E.g. this/these, that/those.
- It can indicate whether the Noun is proximal or distant from the Utterer. E.g. these/those, this/that
- It can be a Definite Noun Phrase.
- …
- Example(s):
- “this”: as in the sentence "[This] is a tasty [apple]".
- “that”: as in the sentence "[That] is a fast [car]".
- “these”: as in the sentence "...".
- “those”: as in the sentence "...".
- “yonder”: as in the sentence "...".
- See: noun phrase.
References
- (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=demonstrative%20pronoun
- Noun
- S: (n) demonstrative pronoun, demonstrative (a pronoun that points out an intended referent)
- Noun
- (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstrative
- Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. Demonstratives are employed for spatial deixis (using the context of the physical surroundings) and as discourse deictics, referring to propositions mentioned in speech.
- The demonstratives in English are this, that, these, and those, possibly followed by one(s) in case of pronouns, as explained below.
- It is relatively common for a language to distinguish between demonstrative determiners (or demonstrative adjectives, determinative demonstratives) and demonstrative pronouns (or independent demonstratives).
- A demonstrative determiner modifies a noun:
- This apple is good.
- I like those houses.
- A demonstrative pronoun stands on its own, replacing rather than modifying a noun:
- This is good.
- I like those.
- There are five demonstrative pronouns in English; this, that, these, those and the less common yonder (the latter is usually employed as a demonstrative determiner; even so it is rarely used in common English).
- http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demonstrative_pronoun
- Noun
- 1. (grammar) a pronoun which replaces a noun whose identity can be understood from the context; it indicates whether the noun is singular or plural, and whether it is near or far from the speaker or writer
- Noun