The most common basic determinatives are proximal demonstrative 这zhe4 ‘this’ and distal demonstrative 那na4 ‘that’. Examples are shown below,
这几件陶器是最近出土的。[proximal]
zhe4 ji3 jian4 tao2qi4 shi4 zui4jin4 chu1tu3 de0
this several CL pottery be recently excavate DE
‘These porcelain vessels were unearthed recently.’
市议会正在审议那个提案。[distal]
shi4yi4hui4 zheng4zai4 shen3yi4 na4 ge4 ti2an4
city_council ZAI examine_and_discuss that CL motion
‘The City Council is debating that legislation.’
Reference:
Shi, Dingxu. 2016. Nouns and nominal phrases. In A Reference Grammar of Chinese, eds. by Chu-Ren Huang and Dingxu Shi. Cambridge University Press.
