This paper revisits two articles co-authored with van Heuven which study the
semantics of grammatical signals quantitatively – as if semantics were phonetics.
Kirsner & van Heuven (1988) demonstrates that the Dutch demonstrative
adjective deze ‘this/these’ refers back in texts over more sentence… read more
Unlike the Dutch demonstratives deze (dit) and, die (dat), which can be characterized in terms of definiteness and location, Afrikaans hierdie, daardie and dié must be analyzed as signaling the meaning deixis: an instruction to the hearer to seek out and attend to some referent. Accordingly, the… read more