Understanding demonstrative reference in text: a new taxonomy based on a new corpus

Abstract Endophoric demonstratives such as this and that are among the most frequently used words in written texts. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how exactly they should be subdivided classified terms of their different types use. Here, we develop a new taxonomy endophoric based on large-scale corpus including three genres: news items, encyclopedic texts, book reviews. The enables analysts to reliably code objectively applicable criteria, while at same time making them aware many subtle borderline cases. We consider theoretical foundation for future empirical work into demonstratives, an analytical tool allowing researchers unify compare results studies coming from genres languages.