Deixis

Contents

2.1 preliminaries

2.2 deictic and non-deictic uses

2.3 types of deixis

2.1 preliminaries

The word deixis is derived from the Greek verb meaning pointing.
Deixis is directly concerned with the relationship between the structure of
a language and the context in which the language is used. It relates a piece
of language to its context in terms of its users, the time and place of its
occurrence, the people and objects it refers to. That is, deixis is used to
ensure that the context is specific enough for the listener to work out the
pragmatic meaning of a given utterance.
There are five typical linguistic expressions used as deictics for short:
2.1 preliminaries

· Demonstratives (this that

· First and second person pronouns (I you
· Tense markers (-ed -ing
· Adverbs of time and space (now there
· Motion verbs (go come
2.1 preliminaries

Deixis is self-centered and the egocentricity of deixis can be divided into

the following types:

· The central person is the speaker.

· The central time is the time at which the speaker produces the utterances.
· The central place is the speaker’s location at utterances time.
· The discourse center is the point which the speaker is currently at in the
production of his utterance.
· The social center is the speaker’s social status and rank.
2.1 preliminaries

E.g. we need to realize that “five score years ago” mentioned in MLK’s speech
is a century earlier before the time he gave the speech in 1963 rather than a
century before the year you read this book.
2.1 preliminaries

Two occasions:
1. In other languages, for example, Japanese, the choice of
demonstratives is jointly decided by both the speaker and listener.
2. The speaker purposefully projects himself in a deictic context
to express empathy or politeness.

E.g. Tom is Mary’s boyfriend. M is sick and T wanted to visit so he sends a message:
A.I will go to your apartment as soon as possible.
B.I will come to your apartment as soon as possible.
B not only conveys the message of T’s quick arrival but also place M as his center
revealing his considerateness instead of considering himself as the center in A.
2.2 deictic and non-deictic uses

Deixis can be used both deictically and non-deictically.

Deictic expression refers to the expressions with deictic use as
their central usage.
Non-deictic expressions have non-deictic use as their major
function. For example, the second person pronouns are usually deictic
expressions and the third person pronouns are not.
2.2 deictic and non-deictic uses

When deixis is used to link a piece of language and its context, we call
these words deictics.
Within deictic use, a further distinction can be drawn between
gestural and symbolic use. The use of deictic expressions together with
paralinguistic features like eye-gaze, facial expressions, nodding, hand
gestures and so on is called the gesture use, and that without is called
symbolic use.
2.2 deictic and non-deictic uses

Non-deictic use involves both anaphoric and non-anaphoric uses.

Anaphoric use requires co-reference with its antecedent in the same
sentence and the antecedent must have a higher position than the
pronoun.
2.3 types of deixis

5 parameters of egocentricity : person, time, space, social, and discourse.

The first three types are the most commonly used deictic terms and they
are often used with paralinguistic assistance, whereas the last two types
are associated with contextual features.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

Person deixis contributes to the identification of the interlocutors or

participant-roles in a speech event. The two common types of person
deixis are personal pronouns and vocatives. The former involves the use
of different pronouns and their syntactic agreements, while the latter
consists of proper names, kinship terms, titles, and general terms, etc.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

In a speech event, both interlocutors are potential addressers and

addressees.However, there could be only one speaker/addresser at the
production of an utterance, whereas multiple hearers/listeners may be
involved inone utterance.
Hearers/listeners can be divided into addressee and bystander. In a
conversation, the former is represented by second-person pronouns,
and the latter is addressed via third-person pronouns. The relationship
between different types of pronouns is summarized as follows:
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

Pronouns also distinguish number and gender in different languages.

For example, in Chinese, 你 你们 equal you in English. Moreover, there
is a distinction between exclusive "we" and inclusive "we" in English.
See the examples below:
(2. 19) Let us go to see a movie. (exclusive we)
(2.20) Let's go to see a movie. (inclusive we)
There are also gender differences among different languages. For
example, some languages only mark the singular form and some others
only mark a particular gender.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

In addition to personal pronouns, vocatives also function as name

deixis. In general, vocatives are defined as "noun phrases that refer to
the addressee but are not syntactically or semantically incorporated as
the arguments of a predicate".

Textbook p14 graph 2.21 ： A bried typology of Chinese and English vocatives.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.1 person deixis

Here are three caveats of using vocatives.

First, in Chinese, only dissyllabic last names can be used as vocatives
without other modifiers, whereas monosyllabic last names have to be
bound with other modifiers.In contrast, English last names are free, Last
names without any modifiers are often used in institutionalized
contexts such as courts and parliaments. Second, Chinese kinship terms
can be uttered to both family members (kin use) and people without
blood ties (non-kin use). Third, evaluative terms are dynamic in
accordance with socio-cultural factors and contextual factors.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.2 Time deixis

Time deixis, or temporal deixis, measures the encoding of temporal

points and spans coordinating to the time at which an utterance was
produced. The two main types of time deixis are time adverbials (e. g. ,
yesterday, tomorrow, now, then, etc.) and tense (e. g., -ed . -ing , etc.)
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.2 Time deixis

First, time adverbial. In general, time can be represented through

calendrical and non-calendrical ways.The calendrical time measures a
fixed period of naturally given temporal unit, such as 3 o' clock,
Monday, and November 19, 1993. In contrast, non-calendrical use refers
to the time measurements that are relative to some definite time units,
such as yesterday, today, tomorrow, and two days ago. But the non-
calendrical terms often carry a preemptive nature of usage compared to
calendrical terms.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.2 Time deixis

The second type of time deixis is tense. One needs to distinguish

between metalinguistic tense (M-tense) and linguistic tense (L-tense) .
M-tense refers to the theoretical category of tense, including the past
tense and the present tense. L-tense is the linguistic realization of M-
tense in ditterent forms.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.2 Time deixis

It is worth noting that every language has M-tense but not all
languages are marked with L-tense. For instance Chinese has no
markings on the verb in different time spans, but the tense can be
worked out through sentence meaning.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.2 Time deixis

Tense can be used to locate the time of the speech event in relation to
the coding time or to identify its distance from reality.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.3 place deixis

Place deixis, or space deixis, spatial deixis, concerns the specification of

locations relative to the reference point at the production time of the
utterance. place deixis is also constructed by the interaction of deictic
coordinates with the non-deictic perception. While it is possible for the
addresser and the addressee to share at the same time, it is impossible
for them to occupy the same location. Place deixis can be used to
suggest both physical and psychological distances.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.3 place deixis

place deixis can be encoded based on either the addresser or the

addressee's coordinates, generating different inferred meanings. Take
the following motion verbs as examples.
(2. 31) I will come to your office soon.
(2. 32) I will go to your office soon.
We can infer that the speaker in 2.31 is close to the office, whereas the
addressee in 2.32 is close to the office.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.4 social deixis

Social deixis is used to indicate the social status of the involved persons
in discourse and marks the social relationship held between them.
There are basically two types of socially deictic information: absolute
and relational.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.4 social deixis

The former refers to the reserved terms for referent with special social
status.
The relational information in social deixis is more widely used and can
be grouped into four categories: speaker and referent , speaker and
addressee, speaker and bystander, and speaker and setting. The
difference between referent honorifics and addressee honorifics is that
the former has to show respect by mentioning the referent, whereas the
latter can express respect without referring to the target. Bystander
honorifics are terms that are used to show respect to the bystanders of
a speech event, including the audience and the non-participants.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.4 social deixis

In general, social deixis can be seen as an extension of person deixis.

Person deixes such as personal pronouns and vocatives are also social
deixes. The major difference is that person deixis concerns more about
the participant-roles, whereas social deixis focuses on the choice of
different honorific forms for a particular person in a specific context.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.4 social deixis

More importantly, since most of the social deixes are relational and
subiect to change, the appropriate manipulation of these deictics could
enhance the pragmatic force of a speech act.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.5 discourse deixis.

Discourse deixis concerns the use of linguistic expressions within some

utterances to refer to the current, preceding, or following utterance in
the same discourse. Since a discourse consists of complete utterances,
there is no denving that sometimes it unfolds time, space and other
elements.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.5 discourse deixis.

Furthermore, utterance initial usages of relative adverbials can also

signal a cohesive relationship of the utterance in the same discourse. A
major function of this use is to link the present utterances with some
portions of the preceding utterances.
2.3 types of deixis

2.3.5 discourse deixis.

Finally, we draw a distinction between discourse deixis and anaphora. In

general, discourse deixis refers to a portion of the discourse, whereas
anaphora refers to the same entity expressed earlier.
Thank you