Edited by Kirsten Jeppesen Kragh and Jan Lindschouw
[Studies in Language Companion Series 136] 2013
► pp. 273–284
With an analytical framework based upon Émile Benveniste’s theory on deixis and pronouns and Laura Vanelli’s theory on determiners, I discuss how Francesco Soave (1743–1806) in his grammar Gramatica ragionata della lingua italiana (1771) deals with personal pronouns and demonstratives. As regards personal pronouns, I conclude that Soave, in a short form, basically expresses the same view as Benveniste. As regards the demonstratives I conclude that Soave’s analysis, though presenting the formal system in a classical way, combines original intralinguistic and extralinguistic explanations about the use: he includes an explicitation of deictic elements, and by connecting the use of articles and demonstratives in a reasoning of how reference is determined his deictic analysis of the demonstratives is placed in a framework with modern traits.