Subject: q : ' this ' and ' that '

dear linguists : some present-day ' european ' languages have only one set of simple demonstratives and the opposition of < this > vs . < that > is expressed by the help of < here > and < there > : french ceci ' this ' ce livre-ci ' this book ' cela ' that ' ce livre-l ` a ' that book ' swedish det ha " r ' this ' den ha " r bilen ' this car ' det da " r ' that ' den da " r bilen ' that car ' estonian see siin ' this ' see maja siin ' this house ' see seal ' that ' see maja seal ' that house ' my sweidish - german dictionary ( stora tyska ordboken ) gives < der hier > and < der da > as colloquial ( familia " r , umgangssprachlich ) german forms which conrrespond to < den ha " r > and < den da " r > , respectively . how common is a demonstrative system like this ? incidentally , japanese has a rather sophisticated three-way distinction here : kono hon ' this book ( you see here ) ' sono hon ' that book ( you see there ) , the book ( under discussion ) ' ano hon ' that book ( you see over there ) ' so i ' m afraid i will have to convince my students that the japanese are extravagant even in the way of using demonstratives . kazuto matsumura kazuto matsumura kmatsum @ tooyoo . l . u-tokyo . ac . jp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - institute for cross - cultural studies ( tooyoo gengo ) faculty of letters , university of tokyo hongo 7 - 3 - 1 , bunkyo - ku , tokyo 113 japan tel . + 81 - 3-5800 - 3754 fax : + 81 - 3-5800 - 3740 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
