Demonstrative determiners in crosslinguistic perspective

AbstractThis paper provides a cross-linguistic overview of adnominal demonstratives (i.e., demonstratives that accompany a noun), with a particular focus on their syntactic function. Drawing on data from a wide range of languages, the paper compares the morphosyntactic properties of adnominal demonstratives to those of demonstrative pronouns and adverbs, examines their position relative to other constituents in complex NPs, and explains how they develop into definite articles and clause linkers, which are often difficult to distinguish from true demonstratives. Taken together, the patterns described in this paper suggest that the syntactic functions of adnominal demonstratives vary along a continuum ranging from free pronouns adjoined to a noun to syntactic determiners integrated into a tightly organized NP.