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12th International Congress on Language, Literature and Culture Researches

Book of Proceeding
05-07 June 2020 / Turkey
ISBN: 978-605-69948-5-2
Yayımlanma tarihi: 03.07.2020
‫كتاب المتون الكاملة للمؤتمرالدولي الثاني عشر للغات والدراسات االدبية والثقافية‬
12. Uluslararası Dil, Edebiyat ve Kültür Araştırmaları Kongresi Tam Metinleri
Yayıncılık Sertifika No: 77535
Genel Yayın Yönetmeni: Sami BASKIN
KÜTÜPHANE BİLGİ KARTI
1. Basım, Elektronik Kitap (Çevrim içi / Web tabanlı)
210 x 297 mm
Kaynakça var, dizin yok.
1. dil 2. edebiyat 3. kültür 4. tam metinler
PDF yayın
Yayımlanma adresi: https://dekak.org/tr/
HİTİT ‫ بالتعاون العلمي مع جامعة‬SAYBİLDER ‫منشورات‬
 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

Demonstratives in English with Reference to Arabic: A

Syntactico-Pragmatic Study

Waleed Younus Meteab - Department of English, College of Education,

University of Al-Hamdaniya, Iraq

Ali Hussein Hazem - Department of Philology, University of Patras, Greece

Abstract

Demonstratives are one of the deictic expressions or indexical that are greatly influenced
by the context of situation in which they are used. Thus, like other grammatical items,
demonstratives are governed by the pragmatics, i.e. the speaker’s intention and the
context of situation. This research is of syntactic-pragmatic orientation that takes into
account how to use demonstratives in both English and Arabic and the intention of the
speaker or the writer. The study is adopted to Diessel’s (1999) model. The study aims at
showing the class of demonstratives in both English and Arabic and Showing how
demonstratives are used in both languages in real situations. The researchers hypothesize
that the users of language cannot correctly employ demonstratives unless they are
indulged in certain situations. Therefore, the relationship between the syntax and
pragmatics of demonstratives is mutual. The main problem of this research lies in the
situation in which a certain demonstrative is used in order to determine what is meant
by it. Otherwise, demonstratives, like other grammatical items, are still ambiguous
especially if we know that English demonstrates a wide variety of meanings when it
comes to demonstratives. Arabic, on the other hand, has a lot of demonstratives
depending on number, gender, near or far from the speaker. The study concludes with
remarkable findings that can be interesting to the linguistic and translation fields.

Keywords:demonstratives, contrastive analysis, deictic expressions, demonstrative

pronouns, linguistic analysis.

‫املستخلص‬
‫ لذا فهي أحد األساليب النحوية اليت‬.‫إن أمساء اإلشارة هي أحد التعابري اإلشارية اليت حيكمها السياق بصورة كبرية‬
‫ وبعبارة‬.‫ هذا وخيتط البحث لنفسه منحى حنواي وتداوليا يف آن معا‬.‫ختضع لنية املتكلم وما الذي قصده يف سياق حمدد‬
‫أخ رى فإن هذا البحث أيخذ بنظر االعتبار كيفية استخدام أمساء اإلشارة يف كال اللغتني االنكليزية والعربية وتوظيفها يف‬

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

‫ هذا ويفرتض الباحثان أنه ليس ابإلمكان توظيف أمساء اإلشارة التوظيف واالستخدام الصحيحني إال‬.‫سياقات حقيقية‬
‫ وبناء عليه فإن العالقة‬.‫إذا كان ذلك ضمن السياق الفعلي التداويل من قبل مستخدمي اللغة سواء االنكليزية أو العربية‬
‫بني القواعد النحوية ألمساء اإلشارة وكيفية استخدامها يف احلياة اليومية هي عالقة متبادلة فكال اجلانبني له أتثري على‬
‫ فلوال املوقف او السياق املعني ملا أمكن اختيار أحد أمساء اإلشارة ولبقي غامضا اذا مانظران‬.‫اآلخر من جهة او أخرى‬
‫ وميكن عزو ذلك إىل وفرة املعاين ألمساء اإلشارة يف اللغة اإلنكليزية من جانب واىل كثرهتا‬.ً‫إىل اجلانب النحوي حصراي‬
‫ هذا وقد خلصت‬.‫وتنوعها يف اللغة العربية من جانب آخر إذ أهنا ختضع لعدة عوامل منها العدد واجلنس وغريها‬
.‫الدراسة إىل استنتاجات هلا أمهيتها يف دراسة اللغة وكذلك يف حقل الرتمجة‬
Limits of the study

This paper studies the demonstratives as deictic expressions in Standard Arabic and
English by outlining their syntactic and pragmatic properties in the two languages. On
the basis of the outcome of this outline, a contrastive study of the linguistic properties of
this group of deictic expressions in the two languages is conducted next.

Aims of the Study

The current study aims at:

1. Showing the class of demonstratives in both English and Arabic

2. Clarifying the differences and similarities between both languages regarding

demonstratives

3. Showing how demonstratives are used in English and Arabic in real situations.
4. Testing the samples selected by a suitable model.

Hypothesis of the study

The researchers hypothesize that the users of language cannot correctly employ
demonstratives unless they are indulged in certain situations. On the other hand, being
in a certain situation governs the demonstrative that should be used in it. Thus, the
relationship between the syntax and pragmatics of demonstratives is mutual.

The Statement of the Problem(s)

Pragmatics is the umbrella of syntax. In other words, the syntactic structures used are
governed by something general called the speaker's meaning or the intention of the
speaker. Building on that, it can be stated that the main problem of this research lies in
the situation in which a certain demonstrative is used in order to determine what is
meant by it. Otherwise, demonstratives, like other grammatical items, are still
ambiguous especially if we know that English demonstrates a wide variety of meanings
when it comes to demonstratives. Arabic, on the other hand, has a lot of demonstratives
depending on number, gender, near or far from the speaker.

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

Model of the Study

The present study adopts Diessel (1999) model. According to Diessel, a demonstrative
has three notions; semantic, syntactic and pragmatic function.

Introduction

Demonstratives are one of the deictic expressions or indexical. It is known that deixis is
of three types: spatial, temporal, and personal. Demonstratives, like other deictic
expressions, are greatly influenced by the context of situation in which they are used.
For example, the demonstratives "this", and "that" can be simultaneously used by two
speakers to refer to the same entity in reality. Thus, demonstratives, like other
grammatical items, are governed by the pragmatics, i.e. the speaker’s intention and the
context of situation. Diessel (1999) conceptualizes demonstrative into three notions;
demonstrative has semantic, syntactic and pragmatic function. In semantic notion,
demonstratives can at least have two- way systems of demonstratives, that is, proximal
demonstrative and distal one. A proximal demonstrative indicates that object is closer to
the speaker or may be close to both speaker and addressee. Distal demonstrative refers to
the object that is closer to the addressee. Syntactically, demonstratives have some
categorizations. Diessel (1999) categorizes demonstratives into four categorizations-
adnominal, pronominal, identificational and adverbial. Additionally, demonstratives are
classified into, adverbial, nominal and verbal, (Dixon,2003 in Amfo 2007). From
pragmatic point of view, demonstratives are used to concentrate the hearer’s awareness
on an object in the speech situation. Another use of demonstratives is to arrange the
flow in the ongoing discourse especially by keeping track of discourse participants to
activate specific shared knowledge. Though, the most basic function of demonstrative
in pragmatic notion is to orient the addressee outside of discourse in surrounding
situation (Diessel, 1999). This paper explores the syntactic and pragmatic features of
demonstratives in English with reference to Arabic.

Literature Review

Demonstratives have traditionally been analyzed as ‘pointing words.’ Some linguists

such as meanings such as (Gundel, Hedberg and Zacharski 1993, Enfield 2003) among
many others (Botley and McEnery 2001, OH 2001) argue that demonstratives are used
to focus on other cognitive and pragmatic meanings. Most of the previous studies on
demonstratives have focused on the morphological, syntactic, and other aspects. They,
on the other hand, haven’t taken into consideration the know-how of using them in
given situations in everyday life. Thus, this research will be of pragmatic orientation. In
other words, it will take into account how to use demonstratives in both English and
Arabic and the intention of the speaker or the writer.

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

Types and Forms of Demonstratives

According to Sutarman. (2016), Diessel (1999) divides demonstrative into four types of
demonstratives:
Pronominal, adnominal, adverbial and identificational.

Nominal demonstratives

Nominal demonstratives occur in a noun phrase. “It may always appear in a NP with a
noun, and in some languages with some pronoun. It is the most common form of
demonstratives that is found in the world’s languages. In most languages, it may also
make up a complete NP”. (Dixon ,2003).

Martinet and Thomson (1986) define that demonstrative determiner functions to

modify a noun. Its function as demonstrative is determined in a context. Demonstrative
pronoun is used to point out someone or something (Frank, 1972). It is independent
demonstrative as it stands on its own. It is replacing something or someone rather than
modifying (Sutarman, 2016). On the other hand, Diessel (1999) makes his own term of
nominal demonstratives. He divides nominal demonstratives into two categories;
pronominal demonstrative and adnominal demonstrative. Pronominal demonstrative
has the same function as demonstrative pronoun as in (1) while adnominal
demonstrative has similar function as the demonstrative determiner as in (2).
(Sutarman,2016).
1. This is my book.’

2. This book is mine.

Verbaldemonstrative

Verbaldemonstrative is verbs with demonstrative meaning, involving deictic reference

to an action (Dixon in Amfo, 2007). This type of demonstrative is rare according to
Dixon (2003) in Amfo (2007).

Pragmatic use of demonstrative

Pragmatically, a demonstrative is used to localize the speakers’ attention on an object or

location in the speech situation (Amfo, 2007). Moreover, it also functions to follow
discourse participants and confirm links between portions of ongoing discourse. The use
of several demonstratives in a conversation may indicate different conceptualization.
(Sutarman,2016).

Referential

Referentialbelongs to the speakers’ intention to a particular object. In this type, the

addressee has to be able to return an existing description or form a new representation

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

by the time the sentence has been stated (Sutarman,2016). An example from Hazem,
(2017: 85):

1. “This factory uses a great / good many workers.”

Gundel et al in Amfo (2007) suggest that all definite expressions are appropriate for this
type. For example:
2. Do you know this student?

Uniquely identifiableenables the addressee to identify the speakers’ intended referent on

the basis of referent only and if the addressee does not have any representation in his/her
memory, he/she will form a new representation (Sutarman,2016). So, this type can used
as a clear explanation and the use of definite article the is appropriate for this type.
Consider the following example:
3. I couldn’t sleep last night. The (next door) kept me awake.

In the example above, the definite article (the) gives an attention to the addressee to
identify the intended referent since he/she has a picture of the referent in his/her
memory. If the referent is mentioned in an expression, it is in short term memory.
Otherwise, the addressee has the representation of the referent in his/her long-term
memory (Sutarman,2016). This type is necessary for all personal pronouns and
demonstratives and is appropriate for the use of determiner that as in the following:
4. I did my best in yesterday’s exam. That book (on the table) gives me motivation.

The representation may reveal from the immediate linguistic or extralinguistic context
(Amfo, 2007). This type is appropriate for the use of all pronominal forms and it is
sufficient the use of demonstrative pronouns this and that, all stressed personal
pronouns, and the demonstrative determiner this (Amfo, 2007). It may include the
speakers and hearers in real communicative context in a running discourse by which the
addressee is working in his running memory (Sutarman,2016). The following sentence
illustrates:
5. I did my best in yesterday’s exam. That gave me motivation.
The last type is in focus in which the referent in this type may become the topic of the
conversation.

Demonstratives in Arabic

A demonstrative is the name of knowledge referring to a specific sign, by referring to it

while it is present. Otherwise, the sign is moral or mental, and the name of the sign is
usually preceded by the alert, (Ghubin,2006). Thus, a demonstrative noun is that which
indicates a denominate. It is the name of knowledge that denotes a specific by reference,

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

by referring to it while it is present. So, when demonstrating a person named Majid,

one says: (Howell, 1886: 563)

6. hatha majid
This. Masc. sing. Majid- N.Sing.

“This is Majid”.
Here, (hatha) indicates the person (Majid), and (hatha) is the demonstration of that
person. This means that (hatha) functions as a pronoun for (Majid). (Ghubin,2006:19)
classify demonstratives according to the definition above into the following semantic
distinctive features:
1. The demonstrative must be a linguistic lexical item of the class of Nominal.
2. This item must imply a meaning.

3. This item has also the feature of referring to that meaning that it denotes.
A demonstrative is used as referent to a visible object, near or far, is. Arab linguists
classify demonstratives within the larger set of what is termed /al maaarif/ “the defined
nouns”, in contrast with/al nakirat/ the indefinites”. However, they are also termed /al
mubahamat/ ambiguous nouns) because of their generalized deictic function of
reference to both animate and inanimate entities (‫ االنصاري‬, I: 306, cited in
Ghubin,2006:19).
In Arabic, demonstratives inflect for number (singular/dual/plural), gender
(male/female), place (near/far), person (2nd/3rd) and case. (ibid:20)
The following are the most popular demonstratives in Arabic:
1. / hatha / ‘this’
This demonstrative is used in Arabic to refer to near singular (count or non- count
noun). Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (singular), gender
(masculine), person (second). Consider the following example:
7. hatha kitab-un nadir-un

thisbook- Nom rare-Nom

“This is a rare book.”

2. /hathihi/ ‘this’
The second type of demonstratives is used to refer to near singular (count or non- count
noun). Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (singular), gender
(feminine), person (second). Consider the following example:

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

8. hathihi qisa-t-un qadim-ah

this – sing. -F. -story- N.- F.

“This is an old story.”

3. /hathan/ ‘these’

The third type of demonstratives is used to refer to near dual (count or non- count
noun). Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (dual), gender
(masculine), person (second). Consider the following example:
9. hathan-i al walada-n Xalwqan

these- dual the boys- Dual good manners

“These two boys are moral”.

4. /hatan/ these
The fourth type of demonstratives is used to refer to near dual (count or non- count
noun). Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (dual), gender
(Feminine), person (second). Consider the following example:
10. qaraʔt-u hatain-i al qasidatain-i

read- 1ST sing. Nom these- Gen the stody- Dual N. Gen
“I read these two stories”.

5. /hawulaʔ/ those
The fifth type of demonstratives is used to refer to near plural noun. Morphologically,
this demonstrative is inflected for number (plural), gender (Masculine and Feminine),
person (second). Consider the following example:

11. hawʔlaʔ-i abtal-u al iraq-i

these. M. Plural-Gen heroes- Nom the Iraq- Gen

“These are the heroes of Iraq.

12. hawʔlaʔ-i mumathilat-u al masra-i

these- F. Plural Gen actresses- Nom the theatre

“These are theater actresses”.
6. /thalik/ ‘that’

This demonstrative is used in to refer to far singular (count or non- count noun).
Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (singular), gender
(masculine), person (second). Consider the following example:

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

13. thalika al talib-u mujtahidun

that. Sing. M. the student- Nom clever-Nom

“That student is clever”.

7. /tilka/ ‘that’

This demonstrative is used in to refer to far singular (count or non- count noun).
Morphologically, this demonstrative is inflected for number (singular), gender
(Feminine), person (second). Consider the following example:
14. hal tatathakar tilka al ziarata

do remember 2nd sing that the visit

“Do you remember that visit?”

8. / awlaʔika/ ‘those’
This type of demonstratives is used to refer to far plural noun. Morphologically, this
demonstrative is inflected for number (plural), gender (Masculine and Feminine), person
(second). Consider the following example:
15. awlaʔika al awlad yatasabaqoon

those M Pl. the boys racing

“Those boys are racing”.

16. awlaʔika al tilmithatyataħdathna

those Pl. the schoolgirls speak

“Those schoolgirls are talking.

Demonstratives in English

A demonstrative is defined as “a word (a pronoun or a determiner) which refers to

something in terms of whether it is near to or distant from the speaker”, Richards and
Schmidt (2010:161).

Types of Demonstratives in English

There are four primary demonstratives in English: This, that, these, and those. They
can function either as pronouns or as determiners:
Primary demonstratives offer two types of contrast. The first is a contrast in number:
this and that are singular, these and those are plural. The second is a contrast in
proximity. This and these indicate relative nearness, that and those indicate relative
remoteness. The proximity may be in space or time.

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

Morphological Features

Number and Gender

The singular demonstratives: this and that are used for both count and non-count
meaning. (Quirk et al, 1985: 372)
17. This car is nice.

18. That student is my friend.

It is worth mentioning to state that both the singular and the plural demonstratives can
be used as pro-forms to substitute for a noun phrase:

19. This building is nearer than that. (= that building or that one)

20. These cars are cheaper than those (= these apples or these ones)

It is worth noting here that some grammarians (e.g. Eckersley and Eckersley, 1960; 109;
Alexander, 1988: 85) distinguish between two types of demonstratives: demonstrative
adjectives and demonstrativepronouns. The former are always used with nouns:
21. I don't like this coat. (Alexander, 1988:85).

The latter are used without nouns:

22. This is what I need you to do.

23. Great, that is absolutely what I did.

(Eckersley and Eckersley, 1960: 110).

The singular demonstrative pronouns generally have only non-personal reference. The
exceptions are when they are subject, and the speaker is providing or seeking
identification (Quirk et al, 1985: 372):

24. This is my colleague.

25. Is that George?

Co-reference in the demonstratives depends on the context shared by speaker/writer

and hearer/reader. Also, their use may be considered under the headings of situational
reference (reference to the extra-linguistic situation) anaphoric reference (co-reference
to an earlier part of the discourse) and cataphoric reference (co-reference to a later part
of the discourse) (ibid.).

Types of Demonstratives

According to Dixon (2003), there are three types of demonstratives: nominal

demonstratives, local adverbial demonstratives, and verbal demonstratives.

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1. Nominal demonstratives
The concept nominal refers to a noun. (Hazem and Meteab:2019).Nominal
demonstratives can occur in a phrase with a noun or a pronoun or can make complete
noun phrases by themselves. The demonstrative this in English can make a complete
noun phrase. Look at the following example:
26. This Student.

2. Local adverbial demonstratives

Local adverbial demonstratives modify a co-occurring verb. It is therefore important to
notice that they occur either alone as in English example:
27. Put it here.

As was explained above, the locative demonstrative is ‘here’ or with a noun taking local
marking as in:

28. Put it (on the table) there.

Let us now closely examine the following Arabic locative demonstrative.
Local demonstratives in Arabic include: / huna/ ‘here, / hunaka/ ‘there and / hunalika/
over there. These demonstratives denote a place close to, distant or very distant from
the speaker. Ryding, (2005: 321-321).

To shed more light on this particular issue, consider the following examples:
29. huna fi al madrasat-i

here in the school- Gen

“Here in the school”.

30. al tairat-u hunaka

the plane-N. F. Nom there-ACC.

“The plane is (over) there.”

31. hunalika mathal an al maʕalim

there for example Acc. the landmarkers . N. Pl.

“The (are) for example, lanmarkers.”
Dixon states that some languages have manner adverbial demonstratives, such as “(do)
like this, (do) in this way/manner)”

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3. Verbal demonstratives

Verbal demonstratives include examples like “do it like this”, with an accompanying
mimicking action. Verbal demonstratives can occur as the only verb in a predicate or
together with a lexical verb.
Dixon states that a small number of languages do not have manner adverbial
demonstratives but have a subclass of verbs with demonstrative meaning which involve
deictic reference to an action.

Criteria for Defining Demonstratives

Diessel (1999) gave three criteria for defining demonstratives.

1. pointing words have syntactic functions.

2. pointing words have pragmatic functions in arranging information flow in the

utterances through the hearer’s attention on objects in the speech situation.

3. Demonstratives encode a meaning of spatial distance.

The three criteria given by Diessel are all possible characteristics of demonstratives, but
they are not universal features. For example, it is not a universal feature of
demonstratives to indicate spatial distance.

Syntactic distribution of nominal demonstratives

Nominal demonstratives are classified into adnominal and pronominal demonstratives.

This classification corresponds to the syntactic context in which they occur. Pronominal
demonstratives occur as independent phrases by themselves while adnominal
demonstratives co-occur with a noun or a pronoun. Crosslinguistically, adnominal
demonstratives are more frequent than pronominal demonstratives (Dixon 2003,
Diessel 1999, Himmelman 1996). There are demonstratives which occur in copular or
non-verbal clauses (e.g., this is John). Diessel (1999) calls them identificational
demonstratives and identifies them as a separate category from nominal demonstratives.
He supports this argument by the fact that in certain languages they are formally
distinguished. Example Demonstratives are classified into grammatical categories that
correspond to their syntactic distribution. Adnominal demonstratives are referred to as
demonstrative determiners/adjectives (henceforth determiners). Pronominal
demonstratives are typically referred to in the literature as demonstrative pronouns.
While in most languages the same form is used as a demonstrative determiner and as
demonstrative pronoun, there are languages where demonstrative determiners and
demonstrative pronouns are formally distinguished. Some authors (e.g., Diessel 1999)

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 ‫كتاب املتون الكاملة ألحباث املؤمتر الدويل الثاين عشر للدراسات الثقافية واللغوية‬

state that unless demonstratives are formally distinguished, they do not belong to
different grammatical categories. Furthermore, in Arabic, demonstratives co-occur with
the definite article.
The differences between demonstratives belong to the difference in referent type, each
demonstrative is limited to a particular referent, i.e., singular, dual or plural, masculine
or feminine, and they are entirely indeclinable except for the dual. (Rabadi:2016: 20)
Demonstratives are sorted into grammatical classifications that match their syntactic
distribution. As for nominal demonstratives, they are categorized into adnominal
demonstrative, occurring with a noun or a pronoun, or pronominal demonstratives,
occurring as independent phrase. As stated by Dixon (2003) and Diessel (1999)
pronominal demonstratives are less frequent than adnominal demonstratives. In Arabic,
demonstrative pronouns come before the noun they refer to, whereas the
demonstrative modifiers, they come either in prenominal position or in postnominal
position. For example:
32. Auħib-u hatha al talib

Like- 1st sing. – Nom this student. N M.

“I like this student”.

33. Thalik-a al walad-u

That. Acc. the boy. N. sing. M- Nom.

“That Boy”(Prenominal position)

34. al banat-u awlaʔik-a

the girls-Nom those-Acc.

“Those girls”. (Postnominal position)

A demonstrative can also occur in alternative questions structures. The following

example is taken from (Kamil and Hazem, 29019:79):

35. ʔ anta faʕalt-a hatha am Yousif

Have you. 2nd sing. M. Acc. did this or Yousif N. 3rd sing.
“Have you done this or Yousif?

Arab grammarians analyze demonstratives declension arbitrarily according to their

derivation and position, and if they end with case markers, they are indeclinable not the
case markers. Their declension analysis can be expressed as dual nouns in two cases.
First, they are nominal with the case marker.

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If they are subjects of a nominal sentence, predicates, subjects or representative subjects,

they are accusative with the case marker ‘i’ if they are objects.

The difference between Arabic and English in this regard is due to the Arabic
dependence on presumptions or case markers at the end of words, whereas English does
not have such markers. English demonstrative pronouns have six grammatical function
in syntax (See Brinton & Brinton, 2010; Hopper, 1999; Huddleston, 1984). These are
the followings:
a. Subject: a demonstrative occurs in the subject position:

36. This is a smart boy.

b. Subject complement: a demonstrative identifies a subject:

37. The pen that I wanted him to buy was this.

c. Direct object: A demonstrative that comes after a transitive verb:

38. My father bought that car.

d. Object complement: A demonstrative modifies an object:
39. Alex painted your kitchen walls that.

e. Indirect object: A demonstrative in a structure after a direct object:

40. Mary needs you to post these letters.

f. Prepositional complement: A demonstrative in prepositional complement

41. Many people wait their whole lives for those.

The Pragmatic Uses of Demonstratives in English and Arabic:

Pragmatics is the explanation about utterance meaning. It means that pragmatics is the
science of studying about the meaning delivered by the speaker (writer) and interpreted
by the listener (reader). (Yule: 1996). There are four pragmatic uses which are pointed
out by Himmelmann (1996, 1997) and Diessel (1999a). These are exophoric,
anaphoric, discourse deictic, and recognitional. The comparison in this section is
restricted to these uses.

The Exophoric Use:

Gestural and symbolic are the most popular types of exophoric use. English and Arabic
use this type to draw the attention of listeners to the intended signal.
There are two types of exophoric use:

42. hatha mudir-u al madrasat-i (mushiran ila rajul-in)(gestural)

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this M. manager N. Sing. M.- Nom the school N. Sing.- Gen (pointing at a man
passing by)

“This is school manager”. (pointing at a man passing by) (gestural)

43. hathih-i al sayara-t-u jadida-t-un (symbolic)

this- F. the car N Sing.-F. -Nom. New- F. Nom

“This car is new. (symbolic)

The Anaphoric Use

The two languages exhibit similar use of the anaphoric demonstratives since they
illustrate a reference to a previous mention as an antecedent(s). They refer to the same
referent as their antecedent. Here, the demonstratives refer back to the word, which is
already mentioned in the previous sentence and works as its antecedent:

44. ra?ait-u Majid wa Sarmad fil al maktabat-i hathan-i al walada-n Xalwqan

saw 1st sing. Majid and Sarmad in the library-Gen these- dual- the boys moral.

“I saw Majid and Samir in the library, these two boys are moral.”
45. He asked for his brown raincoat, insisting that this was his usual coat during the
winter months.
Anaphoric and cataphoric are used by English speaker for the proximal demonstrative
but the distal demonstrative is used only anaphorically. Arabic has only anaphoric use of
demonstratives.

The Discourse Deictic Use:

The use of discourse deictic demonstratives does exist and is exhibited in the two
languages. In both the languages, the discourse deictic demonstratives are used to focus
the hearers' attention on aspects of meaning expressed by a chunk of words, sentences:
In English, the proximal demonstrative 'this' can be used anaphorically, i.e. to refer to
something that has previously occurred, and cataphorically, i.e. to refer to something
that is about to happen, while the distal demonstrative is used only anaphorically. In
Arabic, the masculine singular proximal and distal demonstratives are mostly used as
discourse deictics. The masculine proximal demonstrative is only used anaphorically,
whereas the distal is used anaphorically and rarely cataphorically.

The Recognitional Use:

This use implies that the speaker and hearer share the same view or that they sympathize
with one another. They practise a shared knowledge of the topic or the subject referred
to by the demonstrative. Mostly, this use is manifested in the two languages. In English,

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the recognitional demonstrative is coreferential with the noun whereas in Arabic it

occurs with a noun as a post-modifier or pre-modifier. In Arabic the use of this type
denotes mockery and humiliation.
Demonstratives in Arabic are sometimes treated as modifiers because, like other
modifiers, they can be used prenominally and postnominally. However, there are
important differences between modifiers on the one hand and demonstratives on the
other, especially in their prenominal use. There are two demonstratives in Modern
Standard Arabic, one expresses proximity of the object to the speaker (proximal
demonstrative) hatha “this” and another for lack of proximity (distal demonstrative)
dhalika “that”. Each one of these demonstratives inflects for number, gender and
sometimes case, giving a complex grid of forms.
There are two possible positions for demonstratives in Modern Standard Arabic. A
demonstrative may either follow or precede the noun, and in both cases, the definite
article must be affixed onto the noun.
46. hatha. al-walad-u

This. Masc. Sing. the boy. N. Masc. Sing.- Nom

‘This boy’.

Whether the demonstrative precedes or follows the noun, it agrees with it in number
and gender. In Modern Standard Arabic, demonstratives do not overtly inflect for case,
except for the dual proximal ones, as shown in the contrast in the form of the
demonstratives in (47) and (48) respectively:

47. hathani al-kitabaani

these (M. Dual Nom) the books (M. Dual Nom)

“These two books”.

48. hathayni al-kitabaini

these (M. Dual Gen) the books (M. Dual Gen)

“These two books”
Given the fact that dual proximity demonstratives inflect for case. Kremers (2003) and
Shlonsky (2004) treat the two positions of Arabic demonstratives as derivationally
unrelated. Prenominal demonstratives are not modifiers, but that they are heads of a
Dem projection. (Kremers (2003) and Shlonsky (2004). They also use demonstratives in
a discourse (text). They are deixis including anaphoric reference (to refer to entities
earlier in the discourse), cataphoric use (to refer to later entities of the discourse),
situational reference (to refer to the extra-linguistic situation) (Quirk et al., 1985),

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exophoric reference (to refer to entities in the surrounding context), or endophoric

reference (to refer to entities before the discourse).

Findings and Discussions

A demonstrative is used to indicate to somebody or something by a specific reference

whether the referent is present and visible or by an intellectual reference if the referent
is a meaning or an absent entity.
On the basis of the outline above, the following points of similarity and difference
between the membership of the two sets of demonstratives in the two languages can be
identified.

Similarities

There are different types of demonstrative in both Arabic and English. These
demonstratives assume the same deictic functions of situational, personal, and non-
personal co-reference and they precedes its antecedent. Morphological contrasts are
made use of in both languages to mark nearness/remoteness, and to realize the
grammatical category of number: singular/plural. Furthermore, demonstratives can
function as nominal proforms with or without the nouns they refer to. Syntactically, a
demonstrative in both languages can occur in a sentence initially, medially and finally.

Differences

Many demonstratives in Arabic morphologically can realize duality in number, express

contrast in sex (male/female), as well as case (nominative versus accusative/genitive) and
person (second/ third). Demonstratives in English do not realize such grammatical
categories via morphological markers. This difference shows that there are many forms
of demonstratives in Arabic which differs from that of English. Moreover, Arabic has a
dual demonstrative whereas English doesn’t have. Arabic demonstratives have case
markers i.e. shows the number, gender whereas English shows only numbers “singular
and plural” without case, gender markers.

Conclusions

It can be concluded from analyzing the similarities and differences between Arabic and
English demonstratives at the syntactic and pragmatic levels that demonstratives are
immobile in both languages, except for the dual form in Arabic that does not exist in
English as it only includes singular and plural forms. Demonstratives in both languages
indicate near or far referents, but Arabic displays medial referent to objects of medial
distance. From the syntactics analysis, both languages use demonstratives in several
positions within a sentence, so that they might come in the beginning, middle or end of

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sentences according to the syntactic function of the demonstrative. The meaning of

demonstratives is realized through the context that are used. Finally, this study has
contributed to linguistic description of demonstratives in Arabic and English share far
more syntactic and pragmatic features than one might think in the first place, given that
the two languages belong to different, remote groups. The main difference between the
two stems from the realization of certain grammatical categories (gender, case, number)
in some of these forms in Arabic versus the absence of such morphological contrasts in
English. Pragmatically, demonstrative is used to focus hearer’s attention on object in the
speech situation. The method used in this study is descriptive method in which the data
is collected using field linguistic method and documentary method. Finally, there are
many Arabic dialects that have demonstratives and they need to be studied from socio-
syntactic discipline.

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