Distribution of spatial demonstratives in Serbian literacy

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the distribution of adverbial demonstratives in Serbian literacy, i.e. with their use in the literary and vernacular language. Considering the fact that the system of pronouns in the Serbian language has undergone certain changes, the aim of the paper is to determine whether these changes affected the pronominal bases in spatial demonstratives, since they are all characterized by having a pronoun in their bases. A review of existing literature regarding these words showed that the Serbian-Slavonic language preserved the inherited state, while spatial demonstratives in the vernacular followed the changes in pronouns (e.g., the replacement of demonstratives based on the pronoun *s- with those based on the pronoun *ov-). It has also been shown that interfering with the demonstratives in the field of distality is not something that is only related to the modern Serbian language, but has also been noticed in earlier epochs of the development of the Serbian language.