Death of a Demonstrative: Person and Time. The Case of Estonian too
Death of a Demonstrative: Person and Time. The Case of Estonian too

Summary/Abstract: Demonstratives comprise different systems in different Estonian dialect areas. The number of demonstrative pronouns in these systems ranges from one to three. The general tendency seems to be a decrease in the number of demonstrative pronouns in all dialectal varieties. The present article analyses the disintegration of two demonstrative systems. The article will first discuss the transformation of the South Estonian three-term demonstrative system into a two-term system. The remains of the two-term demonstrative system of Standard Estonian will then be analysed on the basis of the occurrence of the demonstrative too, which can probably be explained as a South Estonian influence. What is common to these cases is that the disappearing demonstrative starts to denote a human referent. However, this still happens in different ways and for different reasons.

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