Towards a typology of demonstrative verbs

Authors

• Don Killian University of Helsinki
• Ekaterina Gruzdeva University of Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61197/fjl.126939

Keywords:

demonstrative verb, deixis, demonstrative, verb, adverb, predication, grammaticalization, word class

Abstract

Demonstratives have traditionally been recognized as a semantic category in which different members are classified as belonging to certain lexical or syntactic categories. Current research suggests there are at least 7 different distinct lexical categories: determiners, pronouns, adverbs, non-verbal predicators, verbs, adpositions, and articles. This study looks at one of the aforementioned category of demonstratives, demonstrative verbs, based on a sample of 101 languages with demonstrative verbs out of a total of 1182 languages examined. We present a typological classification of demonstrative verbs based on semantics, an exploration on the morphosyntactic properties of demonstrative verbs and their use in different pragmatic functions, and vast illustrative data in support of our analysis.