A conceptual framework for the study of demonstrative reference

Abstract

Language allows us to efficiently communicate about the things in the world around us. Seemingly simple words like this and that are a cornerstone of our capability to refer, as they contribute to guiding the attention of our addressee to the specific entity we are talking about. Such demonstratives are acquired early in life, ubiquitous in everyday talk, often closely tied to our gestural communicative abilities, and present in all spoken languages of the world. Based on a review of recent experimental work, here we introduce a new conceptual framework of demonstrative reference. In the context of this framework, we argue that several physical, psychological, and referent-intrinsic factors dynamically interact to influence whether a speaker will use one demonstrative form (e.g., this) or another (e.g., that) in a given setting. However, the relative influence of these factors themselves is argued to be a function of the cultural language setting at hand, the theory-of-mind capacities of the speaker, and the affordances of the specific context in which the speech event takes place. It is demonstrated that the framework has the potential to reconcile findings in the literature that previously seemed irreconcilable. We show that the framework may to a large extent generalize to instances of endophoric reference (e.g., anaphora) and speculate that it may also describe the specific form and kinematics a speaker’s pointing gesture takes. Testable predictions and novel research questions derived from the framework are presented and discussed.

Shrinking Your Deictic System: How Far Can You Go?

“…Overall, the current results indicate that peri-personal space is an important parameter in the mapping of perceptual space onto language, and are, as such, consistent with extant research and ideas on deictic demonstrative use ( Coventry et al, 2014 ; Caldano and Coventry, 2019 ; Peeters et al, 2020 ). Thus, across both groups of Spanish participants in the study, as well as the Norwegian native group, locations closest to the speaker (25 and 50 cm), and within arm length’s reach, were primarily associated with use of the respective proximal terms.…”

Variation in first-generation L1 deictic systems: Language attrition and bilingualism effects

“…Demonstratives are common in the languages of the world and are acquired relatively early (Capirci et al, 1996; Clark, 1978; Clark & Sengul, 1978). They also remain frequent in adult face-to-face communication (Peeters et al, 2021; Wu, 2004) and their use is deeply rooted in the action system (Coventry et al, submitted). In addition, they can be argued to have an important role in language change and language evolution, in that they have emerged early in language evolution and are often accompanied by deictic gestures (Diessel, 2013; Diessel & Coventry, 2020).…”

Learning to generate pointing gestures in situated embodied conversational agents

“…They are essential parts of human communication, since they establish a direct referential link between world and language. Demonstratives like "this, " "that" or "there" are the simplest form of deictic expressions that focus the interlocutor's attention to concrete entities in the surrounding situation Peeters et al (2021). In everyday conversations people often use non-verbal means (e.g., eyes, head, posture, hands) to indicate the location of the referent alongside with verbal expressions to describe it.…”

“…They are essential parts of human communication, since they establish a direct referential link between world and language. Demonstratives like “this,” “that” or “there” are the simplest form of deictic expressions that focus the interlocutor’s attention to concrete entities in the surrounding situation Peeters et al. (2021) .…”