Notes on French and English Demonstratives

English sentences such as: (1) John appreciates that book. (2) John appreciates this book. can both be translated into French as: (3) Jean apprécie ce livre. (‘Jean appreciates ce book’) so that ce seems neutral between that and this. To express the English distinction, French adds -là or ci: (4) Jean apprécie ce livre-là. (‘Jean appreciates ce book-there’) (5) Jean apprécie ce livre-ci. (‘Jean appreciates ce book-here’) in a way that recalls in part non-standard English: (6) John is reading that there book. (7) John is reading this here book. with (6) akin to (4) and with (7) akin to (5). The difference in word order, whereby English has there/here prenominal in (6)/(7) and French has là/-ci postnominal in (4)/(5), was analyzed by Bernstein (1997) in terms of a movement operation that in French moves the noun to the left of -là/-ci, starting from an English-like order, in a way that recalls the difference between French and English adjective position, as in Cinque (2005; to appear). English allows that and this to occur without any visible noun present, as in: (8) John appreciates that. (9) John appreciates this. We take these to involve a silent noun THING (capitals will be used to indicate non-pronunciation), i.e. such examples are to be understood as:1 (10) ...that THING (11) ...this THING the idea being that demonstratives invariably require the presence of a noun (whether silent or pronounced) and that THING is appropriate for these cases. Of interest is the fact that the closest French counterparts of (8) and (9) are:2 (12) Jean apprécie cela. (13) Jean apprécie ceci. in which the -là and -ci of (4)/(5) (though orthographically lacking their hyphen and accent) must appear. It is natural to think that, as in (8) and (9), French (12) and (13) contain THING.: (14) ...ce THING là (15) ...ce THING ci Of special interest is the fact that ce by itself, i.e. without either -là or -ci, is not possible here: (16) *Jean apprécie ce. unless a relative clause is added:3 ------------------------------------