"This" as a Third Article in American English

Abstract

I would like to show that there is in addition a third this, namely, this3, which resembles in its functions a third article. This3 is quite common in spoken American English, predominantly among younger speakers, but is practically nonexistent in writing. School grammars published recently enough to mention it at all generally condemn it, but it may be here to stay. This article investigates the markers, formal and semantic, of this3 as well as its privileges of occurrence, that is, the cases in which it can and cannot contrast