Chapter 5

The deictic identification of similarity

Starting out from the observation that comparisons and assessments of similarity and difference are fundamental cognitive processes and play an important role in a variety of human activities, this article shows that the most basic verbal means for the expression of similarity are demonstratives of manner, quality and degree (French ainsi, tel, tellement). It is shown that the gestural (exophoric) use of such demonstratives provides the source of a wide variety of constructions in a wide variety of languages, so that these demonstratives are instantiations of a semantic category of “similatives” par excellence. Building on earlier work by the same author, the article analyses and describes the wide-spread processes of grammaticalisation leading from exophorically used demonstratives to various types of anaphors, to quotatives, conjunctional adverbs, comparative constructions and to affirmative or approximative particles. The illustrations provided for these pervasive changes are mainly taken from European languages, but occasionally also enriched by exemplification from languages outside of Europe.