Deictic pronouns as cohesive devices the use of demonstratives this, that, these and those by Maltese learners of English

Abstract

The aim of this study is to establish to what extent Maltese learners of English use the deictic pronouns this, that, these and those to create cohesion in their writing. It analyses whether these demonstratives are used mainly as determiners or pronouns and what direction of reference they take. The instrument used for this investigation is a learner corpus comprising the written texts of candidates taking the National Examinations in three consecutive years (2011-1013). The results of the study indicate that the proximal and distal, singular and plural pronouns are used to point to antecedents and precedents in the text as well as to situations that are found outside the text. The deictic pronouns are used primarily as determiners for anaphoric reference by these learners and the small percentage of errors which occur are the result of L1 interference.