Ce N-ci and ce N-là in Middle French

This text aims to describe the evolution of the semantics of the French “complex” demonstratives ce N-ci ‘this’ and ce N-là ‘that’ from their first occurrences onwards. We will look in particular into the semantics of the elements –ci and –là, hypothesizing that the semantics of the simple demonstrative (ce), which has been extensively described in the literature, has remained unchanged in the complex forms. After an analysis of the uses of ce N-ci and ce N-là in a corpus of Middle French texts, we willverify whether these complex forms have taken over the distribution of the semantics of the Old French paradigms cist and cil