DEI

XIS

Mohamad Firdaus bin Mustapa

Javerico Muli
Dennis Ling

A definition of
deixis
Deixis is pointing language. We use deictic
expressions to signal a referent and relate that
referent to common ground shared by the speaker
and the addressee. They situate the speaker and the
addressee in relation to each other and the world
around them.
In other words, deixis helps us to identify things in
time and space

person deixies
a) Terms referring to speaker and addressee: I, me,
my,mine, you, your, yours
Is there a difference between these:
- I want to see you, you but not you
- you can never tell if they are boys are girls these days
b) Terms not referring to speaker or addressee he, him,
his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs
c) Honorifics -Your Majesty, sir,
These terms of social deixis indicate social status

Time deixis
Expressions referring to time:
five minutes ago
tomorrow
last week
next Monday
Choice of tense:
- present tense - he doesnt know
this is proximal
- past tense - yesterday I slept for 10 hours
this communicates distance from current time
- Conditionals - if I won the lottery I would
this communicates distance from current reality

Spatial deixis
Spatial deixis refers to proximity to or distance from the
speaker.
These can be single words
here
there
this
that
or expressions
- two kilometres from the school
- 500 meters away
and words/expressions referring to direction and/or movement
to my left
under the carpet
fetch, take, bring
she came home
she went home

Interpretation of deictic
terms
We interpret deictic terms by looking at
aspects of context such as
- who is speaking
- the time of speaking
- the location of the speaker