Talk:this

Determiner, ugh

Determiner, ugh. But this, in having a plural form, also nouns itself with the possessive.

That belongs to this. Those belong to these. This is that's. This' that's. Those's are thoses' is possible but is unnatural in my all-R-pronouncing English. Possessive Demonstrative Pronouns. They are not determiners, sportfans. --Allamakee Democrat 03:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I don't completely understand what you're trying to say; but it looks like maybe you didn't notice that we have both a "Determiner" section and a "Pronoun" section? (My apologies if you did notice; "nouns itself" isn't a term I'm familiar with, and your comment is littered with sentence fragments I can't decipher, such as "Possessive Demonstrative Pronouns", and pronouns whose antecedents I can't identify, such as in "They are not determiners, sportfans", so I just made a guess at what you might be saying.) —Ruakh_TALK 16:58, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I agree with the ugh. According to the page it is possible to use this as a 'determiner' (whatever that is) for one woman:

I see this woman.

However as the so-called 'determiner' does not have a plural you cannot do it for two:

I see these women

is apparently no longer good English, because somebody has decided to abolish the adjectival demonstrative pronoun these. It now only occurs as a substantive:

I see these.

And of course that is utter,utter nonsense Jcwf 17:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

But then, that is what happens when people try to reinvent wheels a lot: they often do turn out square, don't they? Jcwf 17:15, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks. :-)   (But I should mention that you seem to have been misinterpreting the entry. It never claimed that adjective-like (deprecated template usage) this lacked a plural.) —Ruakh_TALK 17:57, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

But what is the possesive of "this"? That is what would "this'" be considered in proper grrammar? — This unsigned comment was added by 98.96.214.198 (talk) at 00:22, 27 February 2009 (UTC).

This.

I've seen a few places online (okay, in geek forums, e.g. [1], [2]) where "This." is used as a complete sentence, usually to express fundamental agreement with a previous comment. Would this qualify as a separate usage, and if so, what is it? I suppose it's more or less short for "This is correct." or "I agree with this." but in a very emphatic way. Interplanet Janet 08:35, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

I've seen it too. It's like IAWTP ("I agree with this post"). Equinox ◑ 13:32, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

 Done Equinox ◑ 01:46, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

"This is me" in MLE

Linguists have observed a construct in Multicultural London English that looks like "this is me" (or some other pronoun or referent): it is used for reported speech, as if doing an impression of the person. "This is my mum: where've you been all night?" Not sure whether we can get that into Wiktionary at all. Equinox ◑ 01:46, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

 Done at this is someone. Equinox ◑ 17:46, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

"This" as element in forming clickbait

Observing a lot of use of "this" as sort of a stand-in for more substantive info in tweets or article descriptions, with the apparent intent of piquing interest in clicking on the accompanying link. I.e., as one kind of formulation of clickbait. Merits a definition? --A12n (talk) 03:14, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I don't see how it's a separate sense of the word. It's simply using normal everyday language to hide a fact until you read further. Equinox ◑ 17:46, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

This/these many + plural noun

Pag 419 Mastering English An Advanced Grammar for Non-native reads

Elsewhere, demonstratives normally serve as determiners (as in that exact moment, this way, etc.). But in connection with adjectives and quantifiers such as much/many, the singular demonstratives may serve also as degree adverbs, indicating a precise amount or measure: (15) Do we need this many recommendations? 

Yet, despite the number of stars in the sky being uncountable by nature, I've never seen these many stars (in the sky) --Backinstadiums (talk) 17:28, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Meaning "this place"

I found these two occurrences in Trollope's Framley Parsonage rather unusual. (The context is that of temporarily moving the children out of a house where the mother has typhoid fever.)

• "If you can do anything for us," said Mrs. Crawley, "let it be for the poor children."
  "I will have them all moved from this till you are better," said Lucy, boldly.
• "And the children?"
  "Poor things; they are well as yet."
  "They must be taken from this, Crawley, as a matter of course."

Equinox ◑ 19:37, 25 June 2022 (UTC)