The History of English: An Introduction 2nd Edition by Stephan Gramley

Exercise 8

Hee-Cheol Yoon writes: "The proximal demonstratives, the precursors of PDE [Present-Day English] this and these are called compound demonstratives, in that they are formed through the addition of the particle -se/-si to the simple demonstratives."(2014:3). Find out what the initial function of added -se/-si (cf. Latin iste) is and how it might have developed into a marker of nearness. Think about forms like this here and that there; also French ceci and cela.