Burmese thii

[Pornsiri Singhapreecha]

Dear all,
We're writing a paper about linker elements in Southeast Asian languages.
In this paper, we claim that Thai 'thii' (in constructions like khon thii
keng "person THII smart") is not a complementizer but a copular element
linking a subject (NP 'person') and its predicate (AP 'smart').  We argue
that this word order pattern can be analyzed along the same line with
French nominal constructions where a subject and its predicate are linked
by a meaningless (but functional) element such as 'de' in "une pizza de
chaude" 'a hot pizza'.
Now we're looking at Burmese thii.  Can anyone tell us how how, in literary
Burmese, one says "that book" and "this book"?
Is "thii" used in literary Burmese as a demonstrative, e.g. "thii book"
meaning "this book"?
We welcome examples/comments on this (proximity perhaps) perspective of
Burmese 'thii'.
Pornsiri Singhapreecha
Marcel den Dikken