engleski

Croatian ‘pointing words’: Where body, cognition, language, context and culture meet

The focus of this paper is on the set of 'pointing' demonstratives in the Croatian language. In other words, we take a look at select pronouns, adverbs and particles that, in their semantics, have an inherent element of directing the attention to the referent(ial traits). In the first part of the paper we set out some theoretical notions that underpin communication and that will be fundamental for our analysis of the complex paradigm of Croatian demonstratives which is proposed in the second part of the paper. We consider both the norm and changes in the paradigm of demonstratives that is occurring in usage (where the main change is the disappearance of the medial element). Demonstratives (and the shift in the paradigm occurring between norm and usage) are in this work analysed from the cognitive linguistic, embodied perspective, as lexical items that can helps us trace the (evolutionary and developmental) path that leads from earliest, primitive, cross-species dyadic and exophoric communication, via basic triadic and simplest endophoric possibilities, all the way to complex discoursal, socio pragmatic lexical tools.

pointing (gesture), deixis, demonstratives, pronouns, adverbs, particles, presentatives

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