The phrase "demonstrative pronoun" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing types of pronouns that indicate specific things or people, such as "this," "that," "these," and "those."
Example: "In the sentence 'This is my favorite book,' the word 'this' functions as a demonstrative pronoun."
Alternatives: "pointing pronoun" or "indicative pronoun."
Is a demonstrative pronoun purely referential?
A singular term, such as a proper name or a demonstrative pronoun, is a term that signifies exactly one individual thing.
Hence one can argue that a demonstrative pronoun is a disguised categorematic term, and that the mental correlate of "This man runs" is "The man Socrates runs".
In other contexts, especially commentaries on Aristotle's Categories 2a11 13, the vague individual was represented by such phrases as 'some man', but in all the texts we are concerned with, the presence of the demonstrative pronoun is crucial.
The truth of these propositions demand the truth of all or some relevant singular propositions of the type just mentioned; the demonstrative pronoun is then taken to refer the possible beings even though they do not exist.
The type of pronoun we are interested in here is what medieval grammarians called the primitive (non-derived) demonstrative pronoun, which includes personal pronouns such as 'I' and demonstratives such as 'this'this
Demonstrative pronouns represent the gender differences best.
For the third person, Altaic languages use demonstrative pronouns; 'they' is literally 'these' or 'those.' The possessive forms of pronouns are widely used in lieu of definite articles.
This was reflected in the demonstrative pronouns, which in the singular were masculine *aw-antu 'he (man)' and non-masculine *a-tu 'other' (meaning both 'woman' and 'any nonhuman animate or thing').
This simplification of grammatical gender resulted from the fact that the gender of Old English substantives was not always indicated by the ending but rather by the terminations of the adjectives and demonstrative pronouns used with the substantives.
But the epiphanies here are not reported; they are enacted on the page, as suggested by those ambiguous demonstrative pronouns, which make the most sense if they refer to these very lines, and to this very moment of transfiguration.
