“The harder you fight to hold on to specific assumptions, the more likely there’s gold in letting go of them.” - John Seely Brown

Demonstrative Pronouns - Pronouns that point to specific things.

Demonstrative pronouns are indicated with this, these, that or those. They indicate distance. The antecedent can be in another clause or sentence. Sometimes the reference is too vague to denote a specific antecedent.

This is my grandfather. “This” refers to an antecedent that isn’t there - the grandfather’s name. Notice the implied distance (like the grandfather is right in front of the speaker). If the sentence was changed to replace “this” with “that” the distance would seem greater.

Bob Jones eats too much and that bothers Jane. “That” refers to “Bob Jones eats too much”.

When demonstrative pronouns modify nouns they act as adjectives: these toys, those books.