ABSTRACT
Referring to a proposition or event with a demonstrative is more concise than a full noun phrase and more precise than a personal pronoun. While much is known about second language (L2) learners’ use of English ¬articles as reference devices, few studies have examined the frequency with which L2 English speakers use the demonstratives this, that, these and those, or indeed how they use them, whether for reference or other uses. This chapter provides novel information about the functions of demonstratives used by L2 English speakers in the context of an oral narrative. Although demonstratives in English and Japanese have been well studied in the fields of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, both from the point of view of their referential meaning and of their expressive meaning, less is known about them from a functional perspective and very little is known about the functions that L2 English speakers associate with demonstratives.
