Demonstrative determiners(This, that, these, and those) can be used to accomplish a variety of linguistic techniques. Here are a few that I’ve noticed.
Sign of intelligence
Determiners can be used to signify a level of intelligence. Take this scenario as an example: There are two men in one room, both are on other sides of the room but both notice the same lady entering room.
The first man says:
Look at that.
The second says:
Take a look at the girl in black that just walked in.
The first man uses that to completely describe his observation. The person he’s talking to has to look at the first man to see where he’s looking to understand what he’s talking about. It can be assumed the first man speaks from a personal point of view, and does not care about attention drawn to his stares.
The second man describes his observation. The person he’s talking to does not need to look at the second man. The person can simply look around the room for the girl in black. It can be assumed the second man is more coy, and more intelligent.
The usage of demonstrative determiners can be used to portray people who are more sensory-focused than verbal. Similarly to children at a restaurant who point at menu items and say:
I want that.
The above comes across off as unintelligible. Compare this to how parents order at a restauraunt:
I’d like to try the Shrimp Alfredo please.
The next two topics are concepts I learned from a linguistic class. The book is cited at the bottom of the post.
Given vs. New information (Short, 266)
Using the demonstrative determiners in prose can indicate prior knowledge of the topic, and thus a level of rapport.
To begin a conversation with:
The school…
Begs the question, what school? If a male professor is telling his wife a story and begins with, “The school” then it can be assumed the wife knows which school he’s talking about. If the addressee is not mentioned in the text beforehand, then we can still assume a level of rapport between the addressor-addressee because of the use of the demonstrative determiners.
The same can be used for pronouns:
He did it again…
This could be in reference to a lethargic student continued to sleep through another lecture.
She’s out of control…
This could be in reference to the poor behaviour of their kin at school.
In media res (Short, 267)
The in media res is the using the concept from before (given vs. new information) but using it to achieve a sensory reaction (suspense, fear, excitement) from the reader not knowing what the speakers are talking about rather than a level of rapport.
The deal went through.
What deal? Is it drug-related? Why is the speaker being vague? There must be something illegal going on.
We can’t let that happen again
If the scene starts off like this, immediately our interest is piqued. What are the characters talking about? Let what happen again? Was it so bad that there must be an agreement between people to prevent the same event happening twice?
Books Cited:
Short, Mick. Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose. Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1996.
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