The Interplay between Joint Attention, Physical Proximity, and Pointing Gesture in Demonstrative Choice

A fundamental property of language is that it allows us to establish triadic joint attention to a referent, for instance by the use of spatial demonstratives. Traditional accounts of demonstrative choice focused on the physical proximity of the referent to the interlocutors. However, recent work taking into account the multimodal context in which spatial demonstrative use is generally embedded shows that such accounts are too simplistic. Using a controlled elicitation task, we here tested the differential roles of visual joint attention, physical proximity of a referent, and use of a pointing gesture in demonstrative choice in Dutch. It was found that ‘proximal’ demonstratives were used in a speaker-anchored way to refer to objects nearby the speaker. ‘Distal’ demonstratives were used for referents not nearby the speaker, but also in an addressee-anchored way, i.e. when the referent was in the addressee’s focus of visual attention. Pointing gestures were closely tied to demonstratives but not to the use of (in)definite articles. These findings show that demonstrative choice is dependent on a subtle interplay between different context-dependent factors as a function of both speakerand addressee-anchored perspectives. Findings are discussed in terms of demonstrative systems and multimodal reference production in general.