Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

This, that, these, those

93b

Referring to physical closeness and distance

This

and these are used to refer to things which are close in space and time:

I like 

this hotel, don’t you?

I’m sorry, he’s not here. He’s away 

this week.

In 

this lecture we shall be looking in particular at Shakespeare’s History Plays.

Have you finished with 

these newspapers?

That

and those refer to objects and people that speakers may not easily identify

from the immediate situation or that are more distant in space and time:

Could I see 

that video on the shelf up there?

We should move 

those chairs into the corner of the room.

Do you remember 

that Sunday in Jeddah? It was the busiest day of the week.

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

From utterance to discourse | 179

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On the telephone

Especially in telephone calls and in answerphone messages this is used as a

demonstrative pronoun to identify the speaker and that is used to ask the identity

of other speakers:

Hello, 

this is David Locastro speaking. I’m calling at 12.30 your time on

November 9th to leave a message for Virginia Cortes.

Is 

that Nicola? Hi, this is Carol Jordan here.