The semantics of spatial demonstratives in Spanish: a Demonstrative Choice Task study

Abstract

Demonstratives (this/that in English) are pivotal in communication. In this study, we show that semantic features of referents systematically influence speakers’ choices of demonstrative forms for Spanish nouns in the absence of a guiding context. We used the Demonstrative Choice Task (DCT), previously applied to two-term demonstrative languages (Danish, English, and Italian), and applied it to Spanish, a three-term demonstrative system (este/ese/aquel), to test if the semantic dimensions driving demonstrative choice overlap with those found for English. 1,639 native Spanish speakers were presented with 480 nouns rated along 76 semantic features and were asked to match each noun with a demonstrative. We found that demonstratives are influenced by the same semantic factors as two-term languages, such as manipulability, valence, and the self. In Spanish, these semantic factors predict the demonstrative choice between the proximal este/a and a combination of medial and distal forms ese/a and aquel/la. Additional semantic factors affect speakers’ preferences for ese/a versus aquel/a (e.g., visuality and time). We conclude that many of the semantic attractors influencing the choice of demonstratives are constant across languages, independent of the number of terms characterizing the demonstrative system, and provide a window into the landscape of meaning subserving linguistic reference.

Inferring depression and its semantic underpinnings from simple lexical choices

“…Results indicated that demonstrative choices were structured according to the semantic characteristics of the items, where for instance words scoring high on features as fearful, harm, unpleasant, and angry, were associated with more distal demonstrative responses, while nouns scoring high on needs, pleasant, happy, and self, elicited higher proportions of proximal demonstrative forms. These findings hold across English, Spanish [39], Danish and Italian [37] and suggest that choice of demonstrative forms reflects not only contextually bound clues about proximity in physical space, but also carry information about the position of individuals in a non-physical semantic space.…”

Inferring Depression and Its Semantic Underpinnings from Simple Lexical Choices

“…Results indicated that demonstrative choices were structured according to the semantic characteristics of the items, where, for instance, words scoring high on features as fearful, harm, unpleasant, and angry were associated with more distal demonstrative responses, while nouns scoring high on needs, pleasant, happy, and self elicited higher proportions of proximal demonstrative forms. These findings hold across English and Spanish [39] and Danish and Italian [37] and suggest that choice of demonstrative forms not only reflects contextually bound clues about proximity in physical space but also carries information about the position of individuals in a nonphysical semantic space.…”

Reframing self-talk in endurance sports using grammatical taxonomy

“…Interaction with objects, visibility and ownership, however, may modulate the use of demonstratives (Coventry, et al, 2014), and proximal and distal demonstratives may also be used contrastively and at different scales (This planet versus That planet). In the absence of a concrete spatial context, demonstratives can be used to display psychological distance across a variety of semantic dimensions (Rocca, et al, 2019;Rocca & Wallentin, 2020;Todisco, et al, 2021). Thus, if a self-talker says This is good versus That is good, it may refer to actual effects which are located at different distances in vicinity of the speaker, but it may also indicate different levels of mental distancing, somewhat analogous to the use of 1 st and 2 nd person pronouns, where this conceptualised as close to the self while that is conceptualised as being distanced for some reason.…”

“…Thus, if a self-talker says This is good versus That is good, it may refer to actual effects which are located at different distances in vicinity of the speaker, but it may also indicate different levels of mental distancing, somewhat analogous to the use of 1 st and 2 nd person pronouns, where this conceptualised as close to the self while that is conceptualised as being distanced for some reason. In the absence of a context, participants usually pair words with the proximal demonstrative if the word refers to small, manipulable, inanimate and harmless things (This shoe) (Rocca, et al, 2019) or more generally things with positive valence and good taste/smell (Rocca & Wallentin, 2020;Todisco, et al, 2021), whereas the distal demonstrative is used for objects with negative valence, distant in time, large in size (That volcano) or for animate beings (That tiger), including humans.…”