"That" and "This" vs "Tot" and "Etot"

Abstract

The abstracted article summarizes the author's observations concerning the use of the English demonstrative pronouns this and that. The author focuses on the contradiction between what is prescribed by the language system, and what is accepted by the language community. The contradiction mentioned reveals itself in the tendency of the pronoun that to accept the functions of its counterparts by the oppositions of this – that and it – this / that. The speculations of the author are grounded by the theory of oppositional reduction, the fundamentals of which are shortly described after a brief review of literature devoted to the study of demonstrative pronouns. Next, the author passes to the description of the research procedure, which includes statistical, experimental and analytical components. The author's tools also involve elements of comparative analysis of English and Russian demonstrative pronouns, which was ultimately necessary for the implementation of the didactic task. The author's reasoning is accompanied by text illustrations, from which it follows that the main condition contributing to the reduction of the opposition by proximity is anaphoric reference, which is most often accompanied by the stressed position of the pronoun. In conclusion, the author notes the tendency of the pronoun that to secure the status of a universal demonstrative, capable of representing both this and it. This circumstance constitutes one of the specific features of the English demonstrative pronouns in relation to Russian ones, which, in turn, creates additional problems for Russian learners of English.