Demonstrative Pronouns

The Development of the Pronoun. The Rise of Articles

Lecture 17

Demonstrative pronouns belong to an ancient class of words that goes back to two Indo-European roots – se and to. In OE the sound [Ө] started to dominate over the sound [s] due to the pressure of the system (the forms with the sound [Ө] were more numerous (see the table below)).

Demonstrative pronouns in OE changed in Gender, Number, Case:

Pronoun in ModE	Demonstrative Pronouns in OE
Case	Masculine, Sg	Feminine, Sg	Neuter, Sg	Plural
that	Nom	se*	sēo*	þ æ t*	þa
Gen	þes	þ ǽ re	þ æ s	þara
Dat	þ æ m	þ ǽ re	þ æ m	þam
Acc	þone	þā	þ æ t	þa
Instr	þý*	þ ǽ re	þý	þam
this	Nom	þes	þeos	þis*	þās
Gen	þisses	þisse	þisses	þissa
Dat	þissum	þisse	þissum	þissum
Acc	þisne	þās	þis	þās
Instr	þissum	þisse	þys	þissum

In ME the Case system disappeared due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (see the table above: e.g. þ ǽ re – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat; F, Sg, Instr; þa – Pl, Nom; Pl, Acc; þisse – F, Sg, Gen; F, Sg, Dat) and due to phonetic reduction.

In NE the Gender was lost due to the fact that there were some homonymous forms (see the table above: e.g. þes/þ æ s – M, Sg, Gen; N, Sg, Gen; þ æ m – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat; þissum – M, Sg, Dat; N, Sg, Dat) and the following changes happened to the pronouns marked with * in the table above:

· se (M, Sg, Nom) – turned into the definite article “the” (discussed more particularly in the point “Rise of Articles” below);

· sēo (F, Sg, Nom) – turned into the personal pronoun “she” (discussed more particularly in the point “Personal Pronouns” (changes in the 3^rd person) below);

· þ æ t (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “that”;

· þis (N, Sg, Nom) – remained as the unchangeable demonstrative pronoun “this”;

· þý (M, Sg, Instr) – in OE was used in the comparative constructions like “the sooner…the better” but in NE was not distinguished any more phonetically and merged with the unchangeable form of the definite article “the”.

The only category that was left in the demonstrative pronouns was the Number (e.g. ModE this – these, that – those).

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