The French demonstrative system: From Old to Modern French

Abstract

Traditional studies of the evolution of the French demonstrative system have seen it as the result of two processes: the semantic confusion of cist and cil, and the syntactic specialization of the cist series as adjectives, the cil series as pronouns. This study takes as its starting point the author's earlier study of OF demonstratives which showed that the cist series is best analyzed as marked for [proximity] while the cil series as a whole is unmarked [øproximity]. The present study shows that the development of the demonstrative system is a direct result of the unmarked nature of the cil series. The [øproximity] nature of this form led to its frequent use as a synonym of the third-person subject pronoun and, more important, as a support for the relative pro-noun qui. Data on demonstrative usage show that cil was thus more common than cist as a pronoun from a very early date, and that this preference led to its eventual specialization in that role, leaving the adjectival function to cist.