This study explores how demonstratives (e.g. this and that in English) are used spatially and temporally in the sample languages. In English, for example, this and that are used for spatial reference as in this room or that room, and they are also used for temporal reference as in this day or that day. This study also investigates how the equivalents of English here, there, now and then (demonstrative adverbs) are morphologically formed, syntactically constructed and semantically contrasted in various languages. / The three research questions addressed are: (i) What formal types of demonstratives are identifiable in my sample of languages?, (ii) Are temporal demonstratives found in all three syntactic positions (adnominal, pronominal and adverbial) in every language of the sample?; (iii) Are the semantic contrasts of temporal demonstratives the same as those of the spatial demonstratives? / English and another fifteen languages from diverse language families and linguistic areas were selected as the sample. I describe the demonstratives of these languages in terms of morphological, syntactic and semantic features. The dissertation also includes a general discussion on the relationship between space and time through the specific example of the spatial and temporal uses of the demonstratives. / The main results are as follows. All the sample language have spatial demonstratives; the temporal use of the demonstratives is also identifiable in at least one syntactic construction in each language; and the distance contrasts of spatial demonstratives are preserved in the temporal use in at least one of these constructions and in several languages in all three. These results are explained metaphorization -- i.e., by understanding a more abstract domain (time) through a more concrete one (space). / By way of exploring the specific referential range of the demonstrative 'this', an experiment was conducted examining the use of 'this' in Korean and English. The results show that the semantic range of 'this' depends on the differential concept of the week in the two calendric systems.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CHENGCHI/U0003510666 |
| Creators | Song, Hyowon. |
| Publisher | The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. |
| Source Sets | National Chengchi University Libraries |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Rights | Copyright © nccu library on behalf of the copyright holders |
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