Sarah Trevino

4/11/2015
Discourse Analysis
Deixis
In discourse analysis there is a function known as deictics, The name
comes from the Greek word deixis which means pointing(Hatch 210). This means
that deictics are terms that we use to point or refer to ourselves, items in the
environment or others. Often in ASL, this means literally pointing to yourself, others
or items in the environment. There are 5 major types of deictic markers according to
Levinson (1983) and those are: person, place, time, discourse and social. While all 5
are important to discussion, the main focus will be person deixis.
In person deixis the markers refer to persons roles in the piece of discourse.
This can mean I, We, You, her, or any other pronouns used to refer to a
persons role. Confusion in person deixis can also result when writers are unsure of
the true identity of the reading audience (Hatch 210). The example that Hatch uses
in the book is a student commenting on an essay written by a classmate. This is an
example of confused diexis that crops up a lot in academic writing. A student
assumes the audience is familiar with who is being referred to and so thus uses
vague pronouns to describe them, believing the audience will know who You he
she is.
In ASL it is a bit more difficult to determine. A place where you see a person deixis
in ASL is the first 2 seconds (00:00:13.999-00:00:15.371) of the video Early
Intervention when the signer signs PRO-2 plural THINK DEAF which in English
translates to There are deaf people. The signer uses the sign THEY ALL to

represent the deaf people, and then goes on to introduce who they are. In this
segment you see the signer shift her weight backwards and pause for .23 seconds
after THEY. This shift and pause is a common occurrence in ASL deixis marking.
In fact, the next two deixis markers in Early Intervention (00:00:17.90100:00:18.503) and (00:00:18.613-00:00:19.091) one sees the same occurrence
appear with the pattern of the marker stated accompanied by a weight shift either
forward or backwards and a momentary pause after the marker. The same
markings appear in the video See Once, See Never Again. At 00:00:07.35900:00:09.228 the signer signs ME WIFE US-TWO and after Wife and Us two
there is a pause, and instead of a body shift, there is an eyebrow lift between wife
and us two. The same thing occurs at 00:00:54.077-00:00:55.219 I ENTER, you
see the signer sign I then take a brief pause and an eyebrow raise before he goes
into ENTER.
In English, it is not quite as noticeable when someone indicates person diexes. In
the Teddy Bear video you see more of a head movement after each diexes
marker. For instance, at 00:00:20.330-00:00:21.540 you see the speaker look away
briefly after continuing on So he pause, look awaytook a train. So instead of the
speaker pausing and shifting their shoulders, you hear a pause followed by a
movement of his head. Later on you see an identical pattern. At 00:00:35.47300:00:36.623 when the speaker says By that point the president the speaker
turns his body at the president and has a brief pause following president.
Its interesting though, while the ASL users and the English users use
different ways to show a deixes marker of a person, they are similar. In ASL, an
eyebrow lift or shoulder shift can be similar to if they were to be standing on stage
(as the man in the Teddy Bear video is) and move their head or body to

demonstrate a change in subject. As well, the pause following both, indicates that a
stop in ASL and the pause in English, are equivalent markers to demonstrate that
this is a person. Though the two languages are demonstrated in different manners
they still use the same markers to demonstrate the same ideas.

Hatch, Evelyn Marcussen. "1: Channel Open/Close Signals." Discourse and Language
Education. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 8. Print.

VIMEO-Teddy Bear
VIMEO-See Once See Never Again
VIMEO-Early Intervention