In this study, the influence of two types of language on memory for object location was investigated: demonstratives (this, that) and possessives (my, your). Participants read instructions (containing this/that/my/your/the) to place objects at different locations. They then had to recall those object locations. Experiments 1 and 2 tested the contrasting predictions of two possible accounts of l...

In the current work, we test the hypothesis that 'at-issue' and 'not-at-issue' content (Potts, 2005) are processed semi-independently. In a written rating study comparing restrictive relative clauses and parentheticals in interrogatives and declaratives, we observe a significantly larger length penalty for restrictive relative clauses than for parentheticals. This difference cannot be attribute...

[a complaint I hear is that] if we make what a speaker says directly dependent upon what the speaker is referring to—rather than on what the referring expressions he is using refer to—we are effectively (a) prevented from talking sensibly about both the (purported) rigidity and the (purportedly) directly referential nature of (e.g.) proper names and demonstratives, (b) prevented from drawing up...

Abstract In this paper, we present two experimental studies on reference of complex demonstratives. The results our experiments challenge the dominant view in philosophy language, according to which demonstrative is determined by speaker's intentions. first experiment shows that a context where there are candidates for referent—one speaker’s intention, other some “external” factors—people prefe...

Demonstratives, in particular gestures that “only” accompany speech, are not a big issue in current theories of grammar. If we deal with gestures, fixing their function is one big problem, the other one is how to integrate the representations originating from different channels and, ultimately, how to determine their composite meanings. The growing interest in multi-modal settings, computer sim...

German so is a demonstrative expression which picks up degrees or properties and combines as a modifier with gradable as well as non-gradable expressions. Like other demonstratives it can be used deictically and anaphorically, and in addition occur 'out of the blue', without a demonstration gesture or antecedent. If an 'out of the blue' use of so is combined with a gradable expression it yields...

Present-day English is unlike Old in not using singular demonstrative pronouns with anaphoric reference to human beings. This article adds the contributions of Cole (2017) and Los & van Kemenade (2018) our understanding factors determining choice between personal by documenting hitherto unexamined use these as heads relative clauses. It also traces how referring humans retreated clauses Ear...