2. What is deixis?
• Deixis term is borrowed from the Greek word for pointing or
indicating and has as prototypical or focal exemplars the use of
demonstratives, person pronouns, tense, specific time and
place adverbs, and a variety of grammatical features tied
directly to the circumstances of utterance
• Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose
interpretation is relative to the extralinguistics context of the
utterance such as , who is speaking, the time or place of
speaking, the gestures of the speaker or the current location in
the discourse
• It concerns on the interpretation of utterances depends on the
analysis of that context of utterance (Levinson, 1983: 54).
3. Example
Hari ini kontan
Besok boleh bonI’ll be back
in an hour
Untuk Kasihku
---------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------Ku tunggu kau di sini
----------
-----------
4. • “Listen, I ’m not disagreeing with you but with you and not
about this but about this”
( someone’s says when the lights go out )
• “Meet me here a week from now with the stick about this big.”
( a message on a bottle )
5. The words I, you, this, here, hari ini, besok, kau, di sini
don’t have “constant referent”
context dependent
pointing language
7. • Deixis belongs within the domain of pragmatics, because it
directly concerns the relationship between the structure of
languages and the contexts in which they are used.
• The important point, wherever the pragmatics/semantics
boundary is drawn, is that deixis concerns the encoding of
many different aspects of the circumstances surrounding
the utterance, within the utterance itself. Natural language
utterances are thus 'anchored‘ directly to aspects of the
context
8. Philosophical Approaches
• Indexical expressions may be usefully
approached by considering how truth-
conditional semantics deals with certain
natural language expression.
ex: - You are the mother of Napoleon
- This is an eighteenth-century man-trap.
- Mary is in love with that fellow over
there.
- It is now 12.15
9. Sentences that contain such expressions and whose truth values
therefore depend on certain facts about the context of utterance
(identity of speakers, addressees, indicated objects, places and
times, etc.), are not of course in any way special or peculiar. For
just about every utterance has this context-dependency, due in
no small part (at least in many languages) to tense.
For example:
There is a man on Mars
There was a man on Mars
10. Questions of Philosophical
Interest
1. Whether all
indexical
expressions can
be reduced to a
single primary
one?
2. Whether this final
pragmatic residue can be
translated out into some
eternal context-free
artificial language
11. Definite Descriptions
Donnellan in Levinson
Referential Use
The man drinking champagne is Lord Godolphin.
Attributive Use
The man who can lift this stone is stronger than an ox.
That man ((the speaker indicates the man drinking champgne))
is Lord Godolphin.
13. 3 Traditional categories
a. Person Deixis : concerns the encoding of the rule of
participants in the speech event in which the utterance in
question is delivered
b. Place deixis : concerns the encoding of spacial locations
relative to the location of the participants.
c. Time Deixis : concerns the encoding of temporal points and
spans relative to the time at which an utterance was spoken.
14. • Deixis is organized in an egocentric way
• It typically assumed to be as follows :
i. The central person is the speaker
ii. The central time is the time at which the speaker produces
the utterances.
iii. the central place is the speaker’s location at the utterance
time or CT
iv. The discourse centre is the point which the speaker produce
the utterance
v. The social centre is the speaker social status or rank.
15. Fillmore (1971b)
• Kind of Deictic usage :
a. Gestural usage : require a moment by moment physical
monitoring of the speech event for their interpretation.
b. Symbolic usage : make reference only to contextual co-
ordinates available to participants antecedent to the
utterance
16. • who is speaking
• the time or place of speaking
• the gestures of the speaker
• the current location in the discourse
• The topic of the discourse
•Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose
interpretation is relative to the context of the utterance, such as
17. • For example, I is a deictic pronoun because it signals the
speaker as the referent .
• Another characteristic of deictics such as I and you is that
their referents change constantly depending on who is using
them.
• I refers to me when I say it and refers to another person
when he/she says it.
• In this sense, speakers and hearers constantly adjust their
internal registry of deictics to keep up with the conversation.
18. Types of Deixis
Levinson (1983)
1. Person Deixis
2. Time Deixis
3. Place Deixis
4. Discourse Deixis
5. Social Deixis
19. 1. Person deixis
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 or 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
20. Person deixis
• Person deixis is deictic reference to the participant role of
a referent, such as
• the speaker
• the addressee, and
• referents which are neither speaker nor addressee
21. kindsof persondeixis:
• What is first person deixis?
• What is second person deixis?
• What is third person deixis?
22. First persondeixis is
• deictic reference that refers to
• the speaker, or
• both the speaker and referents grouped with the speaker.
23. Examples (English)
•The following singular pronouns:
• I
• me
• myself
• my
• mine
•The following plural pronouns:
• we
• us
• ourselves
• our
• ours
•Am, the first person form of the verb be
24. Second person deixis
Second person deixis is deictic reference to a person or persons identified as addressee.
Examples (English)
•you
•yourself
•yourselves
•your
•yours
25. Third person deixis is
Definition
deictic reference to a referent(s) not identified as the speaker or addressee.
Examples (English)
•he
•she
•they
•the third person singular verb suffix -s
•He sometimes flies.
• Person deixis is reflected directly in the grammatical
categories of person, it may be argued that we need to
develop an independent pragmatic framework of possible
participant role.
26. FOUR DISTINCT SET OF PRIMARY
KIM TERMS ( Australian
Languages)
• A set of vocative terms
• A set of term which have an implicit first person possessive feature.
• A set of terms which have a second person possessive feature.
• A set of terms which have third person possessive feature.
27. vocatives
• Noun pharases that refer to the addressee but are not
syntactically or sematically incorporated as the arguments of a
predicate.
• Vocative form in different languag appear to be highly
idiosyncratic and complex.
28. • Further point to note in connection with person deixis, is that
where face to face contact is lost.
• Example :
• Face to face meeting i can say I’m Joe Bloggs.
• But on telephone i must say “this is Joe Bloggs or Joe Bloggs is
speaking.
• The conclution, it should be noted that two basic participant
roles, speaker and addressee are not the only ones that can
become involved in gramatical distinctions.
30. Time Deixis
• Temporal or Time Diexis is any expression used to point
to a time
• Time Deixis concerns itself with the various times
involved in and referred to in an utterance, such as,
tonight, last week, yesterday, before, after, etc.
• Time Deixis includes time adverbs like now, then, soon
and so forth, and also different tenses.
31. • Tomorrow
- Tomorrow denotes the
consecutive next day after every
day. The tomorrow of a day last
year was a differbt day from
tomorrow of a day next week.
Example of Time Deixis
32. • Fillmore explains that in case of time deixis, the
time adverbs can be used relative to the time
when an utterance is made. Fillmore calls this
time as the “encoding time (ET)”
• On the contrary, The time when the utterance
is heard is called “decoding time (DT)
• While these are frequently the same time, they
can differ, as in case of pre-recorded broadcast
or correspondence. E.g. If one were to right
• “It is raining now, but I hope when you read
this it will be sunny”. The ET and DT would be
different, with the formal deictic term
concerning ET and the latter concerning DT.
Concept of Encoding Time(ET) and Decoding Time(DT)
33. • Moreover, when I say, “I am going to start a new
chapter”, it is an excellent example of ET. But when a
teacher conveys a written message to his/her class,
by writing on the white board: “I will back in an
hour”, he is referring to the decoding time or DT.
• complexities in the usage of tense, time adverbs and
other time-deictic morphemes (letter writing, or
pre- recording of media programmes)
deictic centre remains on the speaker and CT: –
This programme, is being recorded today,
Wednesday April 1st, to be relayed next Thursday.
deictic centre is projected on the addressee and
RT: – This programme was recorded last
Wednesday, April 1st, to be relayed today. (deictic
centre was projected into the future)
Concept of Encoding Time(ET) and Decoding Time(DT)
34. • Tenses = time relations in connection to a given point in time
– present = an event/action simultaneously to the speech act
(work)
– past = an event/action before the speech act (worked)
– future = an event/action after the speech act (you will work)
• There are language systems with more than 3 possibilities
– They distinguish between levels of past, dependent on their
distance from the speaker's utterance
– Tense of immediate past => ex.: frz. Jean vient de resoudre le
problème. John has just been able to solve the problem.
• Difference between absolute tense
– Absolute tense refers immediately to the time of the speaker's
utterance: simple past, simple present
• Relative tenses refer to other tenses:
– past perfect: event refers to another event, that happens
afterwards
Time Diexis: Tenses
40. • Example
• The station is two hundred yards from the cathedral.
• Kabul lies at latitude 34 degrees, longitude 70 degrees.
It is fixed reference points.
42. PURE PLACE-DEICTIC WORDS
Here
The speakers’
location is at coding
time (CT)
It’s very grateful to
be here with you.
There
Distal from speaker’s
location at CT./
Proximal to
addressee at RT.
Put the flowers
there.
43. Sometimes,theredoesnot generally mean
‘how are things at someplacedistant from the
speaker’.
• Example 1:
• How are things there?
‘How are things where the addressee is’
44. Sometimes,theredoesnot generally mean
‘how are things at someplacedistant from the
speaker’.
• Example 2:
• We’re there.
‘there refers to the place we previously mentioned as our goal’
My friends and I visited Masjid Agung Demak last week.
We’re there for collecting data about the role of Walisongo in spreading Islam.
45. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN
(Proximal-distal dimension)
This
The object in a
pragmatically given
area close to the
speaker’s location at
CT.
This is my friend.
That
The object beyond the
pragmatically given
area close to the
speaker’s location at
CT.
That is my friend.
47. The other Demonstrative
Determiners
In North West America, there are 4:
1. This one right here
2. This one nearby
3. That one over there
4. That one way over there
50. Combination between deictic and
non-deictic terms
Deictic
This, that
Non-deictic
Surfaces, fronts, back,
sides
This side of the box.
‘The surface of the box’
This side of the tree.
‘That the area of the three visible from the point of speaker CT’.
51. Perspectives
• The cat is behind the car.
Meaning
Deictic
The car intervenes
between the cat and
the speaker’s location.
Non-deictic
The cat is at the
intrinsic rear-end of
the car.
52. Perspectives
• Bob is the man to the left of Mark.
Meaning
Non-deictic
Bob may be to Mark’
own left.
Deictic
Bob may be to the left
from the speaker’s
point of view.
53. Come vs Go
He’s coming.
• He is moving towards the speaker’s location at CT.
He’s going.
• He is moving away from the speaker’s location at CT.
I’m coming.
• The speaker is moving towards the location of the
addressee at CT.
54. Come
1. Movement towards either the location of the
speaker, or towards the location of addressee at
TC.
2. Movement towards the location of the speaker
at the time of some other specified event.
‘When I’m in the office, you can come to see me.’
3. Motion towards speaker’s location, or
addressee’s location at either Ct, or reference
time.
55. Temporal term for deictic
location
• There’s a good fast food joint just ten minutes from here.
57. 4. DISCOURSE DEIXIS
Concerns the use of expressions within some utterance to
refer to some portion of the discourse that contains that
utterance (including the utterance itself.
(Levinson, 1983: 85)
58. Time discourse-deictic
It seems natural that time-deictic words can be used to refer to
portions of the discourse:
Examples:
• Last week
• Next Thursday
• Last paragraph
• In the next Chapter
59. Demonstrative “This” and “That”
• “This” can be used to refers to a forthcoming portion of the
discourse.
i.g : I bet you haven’t heard this story
• “That” to a preceding portion
i.g : That was the funniest story I’ve never heard
Place discourse-deictic
60. Anaphora
• Concern the use of ( usually ) a pronoun to refer to the same
referent as some prior term, as in :
“Harry’s a sweetheart, he’s so considerate”
61. Discourse Deixis:
• Any expression used to refer to earlier or
forthcoming segments of the discourse: in
the previous/next paragraph, or Have you
heard this joke?
61
62. Example
• Teacher: Tom, spell “mouse”
• Tom: M-O-U-S
• Teacher: But what’s the end of it?
• Tom: A tail!
62
64. SOCIAL DEIXIS
• Social Deixis concerns the encoding of social distinctions that
are relative to participant-roles, particularly aspects of the
social relationship holding between speaker and addressee(s)
or speaker and some referent. (Levinson, 1983: 63)
• Social deixis concerns “that aspects of sentences which reflect
or establish or are determined by certain realties of the social
situation in which the speech act occurs. (Fillmore, 1975: 76 in
Levinson, 1983: 89)
65. Yule (1996: 10) stated that deictic expressions which indicate
higher status are described as honorifics. The discussion of
the circumstances which lead to the choice of one of these
forms rather than another is sometimes as social deixis.
Social deixis is exemplified by certain uses of the so-called TV
(tu/vous) pronouns in many language. (Cruse, 2000: 321)
66. There are two basic kinds of
socially deictic information:
RELATIONAL
ABSOLUTE
67. RELATIONAL; The relations that
typically expressed:
• Speaker and referent (e.g. referent honorifics)
• Speaker and addressee (e.g. addressee honorifics)
• Speaker and bystander (e.g. bystander or audience
honorifics)
• Speaker and setting (e.g. formality levels)
68. ABSOLUTE socially deictic
information:
• Authorized speaker:
Thai:
- ‘khrab’ a polite participle that can only be used by male
speakers.
- ‘kha’ a polite participle that can only be used by female
speakers
• Authorized recipient:
Title Address: Your Honour, Mr. President
69. Conclusion
This chapter has been very largely concerned, first with the
presentation of some useful analytical distinctions and secondly,
a review of some of the many intricacies of deixis in familiar and
less familiar languages
70. References
Cruse, D. A. 2000. Meaning in Language: An Introduction to
Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Grundy, P. 1995. Doing Pragmatics. London: St. Martin’s Press,
Inc.
Levinson, S. C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Saeed, J. I. 1997. Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Yule, G. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.