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The semantics of Old French demonstratives : neutralisation in progress ? In Modem French, demonstratives are organized around the opposition between two paradigms, which are distinguished by their grammatical category (pronouns and determiners). Old French is thus completely distinct from Modern French : the two paradigms CIST and CIL, and both forms could function as either pronoun or determiner. Several attempts have been made to account for the difference between the CIST and CIL series. We demonstrate that none of the previous hypotheses has been totally satisfactory. Our own interpretation is not based on a spatio-temporal conception of deictics (the traditional interpretation), but on the pragmatic analysis of the use of demonstratives in the texts of this earlier period of French (c9th-c12th), in the terms of ?speaker's sphere?. We will argue that this approach alone accounts for the uses in Old French which have posed a problem until now. Such an analysis will help to understand how semantic and morphological changes led to the present distinction between French and the other Romance languages concerning the system of demonstratives.