CHAPTER THREE:

DEICTIC SUBJECTIVITY: THE CATEGORY OF SPACE

III.1 The localist hypothesis:

The central claim of localism (Lyons, 1977) is that spatial organisation is of paramount
importance in human cognition (Clark 1973, Jessen, 1974; Miller & Johnson-Laird 1976). Spatial
expressions are more basic, grammatically and semantically, than various kinds of non-spatial
expressions because they serve as "structural templates" for other expressions (Adamson, in
progress; Lyons, 1977). The implications of the localist hypothesis for an exercise in the
identification of narrative voice can be summarized in the following points:
- Primacy of space in human cognition [centrality of deixis in the making of self]:
Spatial metaphors have been shown to be prevalent in the description of mental and
emotional experience. Indeed, the domain of physical experience provides the grounding for our
conceptualisation of the non-physical so that we could be said to understand the abstract in terms of
the concrete (Adamson, in progress; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lyons, 1977:690-1). To this effect
Urban (1939:186), as quoted in Miller & Johnson-Laird (1976:375), suggests that:
our intellect is primarily fitted to deal with space and moves most easily in this medium. Thus
language itself becomes spatialized, and in so far as reality is represented by language, reality tends
to be spatialized.
No language use, whatever its degree of abstraction, can dispense with at least a basic measure
of spatial anchorage. It will be shown in the conclusion that if deixis, perception and cognition are
taken as the three components of self, no ego could conceivably emerge in language without being
spatio-temporally anchored.
- Space as an indispensable requisite for the concept of selfhood:
Personhood requires possession of a territorial envelope; for in seeing a thing we see
primarily that it occupies a space (Adamson, in progress1:33). Thus personal identity seems to
require a place before it can acquire a substance (Adamson, in progress2:7). The potency of spatial
configurations lies in the link they establish between location and existence (Lyons, 1977).
Supporting evidence from research in social psychology and psychiatry could be found in
(Adamson, in progress1:33) to the effect that some extreme cases of schizophrenia are manifested
in the patient's:
loss of rapport between consciousness and body, or more generally as a loss of significant
opposition between the categories HERE and THERE.
 Person [I] cannot be conceived of as existing outside space [here] and time [now] (see chapters
one and two).
- Physical space and mind space:
It has been argued that the abstract tends to be expressed in terms of the physical [primarily
spatial]. As Adamson has put it (in progress1: 35):
our whole conception of the nature of consciousness, indeed our only way of thinking about it at
all, depends on the assumption that the mind is a space...as a spatial configuration the deictic centre
would indeed be a psychologically valid cryptogram of personality. Moreover, it would be a
cryptogram of double potency: for the deictic third dimension can be constructed as simultaneously
a personal space and a mind space, allowing us to reconstruct the speaker as a spatio-temporal body,
and to reconstruct the speaker as a locus of consciousness.
Thus when the word "subjectivity" is used (see especially chapter one) it presupposes the
existence of a centre defined in terms both of physical space and mind space. Ego is the sum total
of a deictic centre, a perceptual centre and an affective-ideological centre. The contribution of
localism to the identification of the speaking voice in narrative cannot be underestimated. It
provides the theoretical basis for a clear understanding of the term "subjective presence", and what
it is that presence-indicators indicate.

III.2 Fixed standardized Norms:

It would seem that standardized norms such as the geographical coordinates of north, south,
east, west, the rising or setting of the sun, fixed locations such as maritime or air coordinates [in
terms of longitude and latitude], conventionalized reference places such as "by the river [Nile]"
(where the location is fixed by the collective perception of one culture) etc. offer a precise and
sophisticated frame of reference. As such, they might not be ideal as indicators of any subjectivity
behind their use since they can apparently dispense with the need to specify the speaker's
whereabouts, orientation, let alone his emotions or idiosyncrasies.
However, such coordinates, although conventionalized, are not theory-free (Delia, 1979). In
addition, as will be argued below, some of them are not totally free from either cultural or personal
colourings for there are affective factors mediating them. First, fixed norms tend to have a strong
shared cultural significance in the minds of the adherents of that culture. What Rome evokes in the
minds of committed catholics, what Nazi Germany evokes in the minds of Jews, or indeed what the
Holy cities of Makka and Madina evoke in the minds of Muslims, in brief, even fixed locations are
not free from subjective associations which colour their occurrence in people's discourse.1
Secondly, spatial locations tend to have affective connotations. They tend to be associated
in people's minds with some personal experience, desire, fancy, etc. They can have historical,
religious or other significance. As Miller & Johnson-laird (1976:378) have put it:
 Not only do people remember a great deal of organized information about these spatial
elements, but such environmental features have strong affective connotations as well.
Thus it is rewarding to explore the cognitive and affective language for space with a view to
being better equipped in the process of identification of the speaking voice.

III.3 Relativistic space:

Apart from the standardized norms, spatial expressions tend to be relativistic, i.e. relative to
the axis of reference that provides their point of origin. To express relativistic space, various
options are available to the speaker. Either ego or some other centre is taken as the defining axis of
reference. When ego is the axis of reference, the spatial coordinates take on a deictic significance.
When not-ego is chosen as an axis of reference spatial coordinates could then be intrinsic,
canonical, disengaged etc. allowing for various degrees of typicality or normality.
III.3.1 Deictic vs Intrinsic space:
The opposition between deictic and intrinsic space should not obscure the fact that deixis is
more basic than intrinsicality - a significant remark to bear in mind in the process of identification
of the speaking voice. Miller & Johnson-laird (1976:395) sum up the functioning of egocentric
space. In view its importance, their summary will be quoted in length:
Egocentric use of the space concept places ego at the centre of the universe. From this point of
origin ego can lay out a three-dimensional coordinate system that depends on his own orientation.
With respect to this landmark other objects can be directionally located as above or below (ego), in
front or in back (of ego), to the left or to the right (of ego). "Here" is the region X of interaction
with ego. Both his location (the point of origin) and his orientation (the directions of the coordinate
axes) are essential for the interpretation of most words expressing his spatial relations to other
objects. Since two people cannot be in the same place at the same time, the location of ego defines
a unique spatial manifold. In order to understand what a person means when he talks about space
egocentrically, therefore, you have to know where he is and in which direction he is facing.
The relevance of egocentric space lies primarily in the inevitable presupposition it makes of
existence of some deictic centre coinciding with the person of the speaker. The following
discussion will systematically illustrate the vital role of egocentric spatial coordinates as presence-
indicators.
With intrinsic space, defined in Miller & Johnson-Laird (1976:401) as:
If an inanimate object has an intrinsic top and front, the parts that are characteristically adjacent
to your right hand are said to be its intrinsic right side, and those characteristically adjacent to your
left hand are its intrinsic left side.
the criterion for locating the object is not ego's spatial sphere. It might be thought then that
there is no room for the speaker's own subjectivity to enter into play. However, two observations
could be made to the contrary. First, it appears from Miller's definition that intrinsicality is an
abstraction from basically deictic considerations. Second, the definition introduces a vital
ingredient, namely somebody's perception (Chatelin, 1987) of what is characteristic. This
mediatory role assigned to the speaker introduces into the locating act cultural world views and
ideologies (as demonstrated by Halliday, 1971 in his article on the transitivity patterns in William
Golding's The Inheritors) and perhaps personal idiosyncracies especially if the speaker happens to
suffer from abnormal or limited cognitive faculties (as is the case in William Faulkner's The Sound
and the Fury).
III.3.2 Canonical (usual) vs actual coordinates:
The perception of abnormality presupposes an assumed norm as a criterion for classification.
As has been argued by Lyons (1977:698):
such expressions as "upside down" and "back-to-front" are instructive with respect to the
distinction between the canonical and the actual orientation of an entity. We cannot sensibly use
"upside down", for example, except of an entity that has a canonical top and bottom (i.e. a canonical
upper and lower part); and we cannot use "upside down" correctly (other than by chance) unless we
can distinguish the canonical from the actual orientation on particular occasions.
The perception of an asymmetry between the usual and the actual is doubly significant. First, it
may have a deictic element in it since it could be based on a temporal opposition between now
[actual] and not-now (then) [usual]. Second, it presupposes an affective frustration of somebody's
expectations. Thus there are clear affinities between the deictic opposition now vs then and the
affective opposition expectation vs reality. To illustrate the opacity of apparently canonical
coordinates, consider the following passage:
And taking up the buzzer again, he inscribed his name in red ink on the right-hand-side, over the
place where Drioli's kidney was. (SKIN:84)
On the one hand, it could be argued that one of any person's kidneys invariably is at the right-
hand-side. In that case, this would be a simple external report not necessarily presupposing the
speaker's experience of being touched. However, the use of the definite article is ambiguous as it
could well be replaced with the possessive "my" (see chapter six). In that case, the narratorial mode
would be experiential, emanating from a perceptual centre exposed to cutaneous stimuli and
experiencing their effect (see chapter eleven).

III.4 Spatial dimensions:

III.4.1 The Vertical dimensions:
The vertical dimension up-down and the major horizontal dimension front-back have a
perceptual priority over the horizontal dimension of right and left (Lyons, 1977:696). Vertical
coordinates such as above, below and over can be deictic (Miller & Johnson-Laird, 1976:399) when
the axis of reference is ego [X is above/below me] or else they are nondeictic [X is above/below Y
where Y is not ego] (Kerbrat, 1980). When they are used deictically, they function as useful
presence-indicators presupposing a latent I-sayer as a deictic centre. When they are used non-
deictically, they create a sense of ambiguity of reference since it becomes more difficult to relate
them to a fixed deictic centre. This complexity prompts the reader to take their occurrence in a
narrative text as a serious clue that needs to be contextualized. The following discussion will
illustrate their role as clues in the identification of narrative voice.
* Over/Overhead:
When used deictically this coordinate refers back to ego. As the next passage illustrates:
She danced out of the door. One could hear her singing as she ran upstairs. Her little feet
pattered overhead. (PDG:89)
the causality implied between the act of auditory perception (see chapter nine) and the act of
spatially locating the source of the stimulus suggests that there is one perceptual centre responsible
for both acts. Thus the coordinate overhead indicates the presence of an I-sayer, namely Sybil's
brother.
Sometimes the act of spatial locating comes as an explanation or justification of a reported
course of action:
The sun was setting rosy as she entered the wood, but she pressed on among flowers. The light
would last long overhead. (LCL:118)
It might be argued that the sun is bound to be always overhead and thus that the egocentricity is
irrelevant. However, the causality between the course of action, namely the delay in returning
home, and the excuse that it will not be dark yet presupposes the presence of a perceptual
experiential centre, namely Connie.
The affective response to a visual stimulus can also compel a deictic reading of the spatial
coordinate:
The twilight spread a weird, unearthly light overhead, bluish-rose in colour, the cold blue night
sank on the snow. (WIL:532)
The experiential subjectivity of the adjectives "weird", "unearthly", "bluish" (see chapter seven)
leaves no doubt that the spatial coordinate overhead is deictic, that the speaking voice coincides
with Gerald's point of view.
Sometimes, in borderline cases, it is not clear whether the deictic centre belongs to ego or
not:
As the ravens whizzed over, they brushed a streak of sticky glue on to the tops of Mr and Mrs
Twit's heads. (TTW:84)
 Here, the act of auditory perception may prompt the reader to attribute the spatial coordinate to
ego [I could hear it over my head], in which case the speaking voice would belong to both Mr and
Mrs Twit. However, the knowledge that the substance is made of sticky glue does not necessarily
have to be theirs. A plausible experiential description of the substance would have called it "some
sticky substance" and would not have easily identified it as glue. In view of this knowledge, the
speaker could well be the narrator.
Finally, in non-deictic uses of the coordinate, other affective clues in the text can be taken
into consideration so that they invest the locating act with experiential significance:
And beyond these blocks of dwellings, at the back, rose all the astonishing and frightening
overhead erections of a really modern mine. (LCL:160)
The deictic significance of beyond will be discussed below (see also chapter five for the role of
demonstratives as clues, and chapter six on the definite article and the quantifiers). The adjectives
"astonishing" and "frightening" together with the adverb "really" presuppose a highly involved
value judgment (chapter seven), hence an experiential response to the ugliness of the mine
emanating from a centre of consciousness obviously displeased with such a site. The speaker is
thus Lady Chatterley as she is being driven through Tavershall.
* Above:
This coordinate can be deictic, as in the next passage:
The panes glowed like plates of heated metal. The sky above was like a faded rose. (PDG:71)
Despite the fact that the sky is always above, which might diminish the force of the
egocentricity, the ego that is presupposed is Dorian in view of the emotional investment in the
description as signalled by the poetical comparison (chapter seven).
However, when it is used nondeictically as in the next extract:
Noble it stood alone above a great park, but out of date, passed over. (LCL:161)
the speaker's subjectivity is not necessarily diminished. Chadwick Hall is being appreciated by
somebody presuming to know its merit, as signalled by the adjectives "noble" and "great" and who
laments its present condition. Thus the opposition between a present state of affairs and an
idealized state of affairs has both the deictic and affective affinities discussed above in the
opposition between the usual and the actual. The speaker is Lady Chatterley as she is being driven
in the car.
* Below:
When used deictically, spatial coordinates such as below tend to be associated with a latent
act of perception. This act of perception can involve the cutaneous senses:
The roaring and swaying was overhead, only cold currents came down below. Connie was
strangely excited in the wood. (LCL:88)
 The sensitivity to coldness (see chapter eleven), highlighted by the implicit expectation of
something missed in the act of perception, as signalled by the adverb "only" together with the
implicit causality between this act of perception and Connie's reported excitement, qualified as
"strange", which indicates the speaker's estrangement (see chapter seven) point to Connie as the
speaker. Perceptually and cognitively, the defining centre is Connie's. However, deictically, there
is no mediation at the spatial level, but the narrator does intervene at the levels of time and person.
Egocentric space mainly co-occurs with visual perception:
In the valley below, behind, in the great bed of snow, were two small figures. (WIL:532)
In this passage the perception of "small figures" presupposes the observer's limitations by
distance since a knowing narrator would have told us who these "figures" represent. This limitation
suggests that the speaker is a limited perceptual centre, namely Gerald (see chapter eight).
However, some uses of this coordinate are ambiguous as in the next passage:
As she rose on to the high country, she could see on her left, on a height above the rolling land,
the shadowy, powerful bulk of Warsop Castle, dark grey, with below it the reddish plastering of
miners' dwellings, newish, and below those the plumes of dark smoke and white steam from the
great colliery. (LCL:160)
At first sight, it would appear that the two uses of below in the text are nondeictic as the
impression is given of objects of perception being ordered with respect to each other without
necessarily involving the position of ego. However, since the viewing position is from some height,
and since Connie is reported to have ascended the high country, the ordering of items below must
be from her vantage point.
Finally, this coordinate can be used nondeictically as in the following passage:
But as a matter of fact, though even Connie did not know it, downhill half a mile below the
"hotel" was old Stacks Gate, with a little old colliery and blackish old brick dwellings. (LCL:160)
Its occurrence signals a reportive act by the narrator. Thus the lack of involved egocentricity is
indicated both by the spatial coordinate and also by the narratorial statement that the character "did
not know it" (see chapter seven for the corrective "as a matter of fact").
III.4.2 The Horizontal Dimensions:
As in the vertical dimension, the horizontal coordinates are useful clues in the identification
of the speaking voice be they deictic or otherwise.
a) Front/back dimension:
It has been argued above that the front-back dimension has a perceptual priority over the
right-left dimension. One possible explanation could be the test of visual perception (Miller &
Johnson-Laird 1976:399). In what follows, the association between perception and the selection of
the spatial coordinate will be illustrated.
 * Ahead/in front:
Strong affinities obtain between visual perception and the ahead/in front coordinates.
Therefore, what is perceptually indicative of the presence of a latent experiential centre holds also
true for the spatial coordinate. The use of the coordinate is then deictic. Thus in the next passage:
Having gained one ridge, he saw the vague shadow of something higher in front. (WIL:532)
the limitation of the observer as signalled by his inability to identify the object of perception
leaves no doubt that the speaker is a perceptual centre at the story level, namely Gerald (see chapter
six on determiners and chapter eight on visual perception).
Similarly, the affinity between perception and spatial location can be seen in the response
they generate in the observer:
The county! It had once been a proud and lordly county. In front, looming again and hanging
on the brow of the sky-line, was the huge and splendid bulk of Chadwick Hall. (LCL:161)
The verb "to loom" is strongly perceptual as it indicates a view obtained from a particular angle
of vision at a particular distance (see chapter eight). Besides, the exclamation mark, the
appreciative adjectives "lordly" and "splendid" and the metaphor "the brow of the sky-line"
indicate a highly emotive investment in the scene (chapter seven). The speaker has to be Connie.
This response can be translated into action:
A stop came into view ahead. Dasein stopped for the main highway. (SRB:138)
One of the basic rules in pragmatics is the principle of relevance (Sperber and Wilson, 1986).
Any new piece of information has to be connected somehow to the preceding context. Thus,
Dasein's stopping his car must be related to the perception of a road sign. The speaking voice in the
first sentence is his.
However, some uses of the front parameter can be ambiguous, as in the following passage:
The head-stock and pit-bank of the mine itself were insignificant among the huge new
installations. And in front of this, the game of dominoes stood forever in a sort of surprise, waiting
to be played. (LCL:160)
It might seem at first look that this is an intrinsic front not involving the location and angle of
vision of the speaker. However, the personification of nature, the metaphorical perception of the
fields patchwork as a game of dominoes, the highly emotional comparison of the mine with the
"new installations" [notice the deictic perception of newness implying a temporal opposition now vs
then], all these clues indicate that the scene is being perceived by an experiential centre. Besides
the demonstrative this could be more than anaphorical in the sense that it could have a deictic
reading (see chapter five). Thus, the front coordinate takes on a deictic significance [in front of
me]. The speaking voice is that of Lady Chatterley. The narrator's intervention operated at the
temporal level by relegating Connie's present of perception to the story's past when viewed from the
narrator's present of narrating.
When used non-deictically in front could be intrinsic, as in the next passage:
On the right, in front of the window, is the dummy. (DMD:1)
Every window is expected to have a front [presumably the inner side] and a back [the outer
side]. However, the determination of whose right is taken as an axis of reference is problematic: is
it the viewer's [as this passage is taken from a self-styled snapshot] or that of an observer inside the
room whose presence is not mentioned, namely the dressmaker?
* Opposite:
When used deictically, the coordinate opposite is egocentric:
He got up and looked out into the street. The sunset had smitten into scarlet gold the upper
windows of the houses opposite. (PDG:71)
Dorian's reported looking into the window serves as a perception heralder (Fehr, 1938) alerting
the reader that what is coming next is the character's own perception. Clearly, in the second
sentence, Dorian's own deictic centre is the axis of reference despite the narrator's mediation at the
temporal level.
There are however borderline cases. Thus the problem with the next passage:
The sisters were crossing a black path through a dark, soiled field. On the left was a large
landscape, a valley with collieries, and opposite hills with cornfields and woods, all blackened with
distance, as if seen through a veil of crape. (WIL:12)
is to determine whether the left/opposite coordinates are reported by an external observer,
namely the narrator, or directly perceived by the two sisters themselves. In other words, is this the
reportive or experiential mode of narration? It seems that the experiential reading is more plausible
in view of the presence of other clues to this effect. Thus the perception of distance, the limitation
in visual point of view through mention of the blackening effect of distance and its effect as "a veil
of crape" are more akin to the perceptual experience of the two sisters.
b) Right/left dimension:
The assignment of right/left depends on prior establishment of directionality in the
front/back dimension. The potential opacity of reference with these two coordinates stems from the
ambiguity in the attitude of the speaker. As Lyons (1977:698) has put it:
The assignment of "right" and "left" will differ, therefore, according to whether the speaker uses
the orientation of the confronting entity (X) or the confronted entity (Y) in order to compute the
assignment.
As is the case with the other spatial coordinates, the need to determine whose right/left is
involved [ego's or somebody else's] is an indispensable requisite in the identification of the
speaking voice in narrative.
 First on/to/the right can be deictic. As an illustration, the whole context in the next
passage is experiential:
To add to his difficulty, a small bright moon shone brilliantly just ahead, on the right, a painful
brilliant thing that was always there, unremitting, from which there was no escape. (WIL:532)
To call the "moon" [or is it the sun?] "a painful brilliant thing" signals that the speaker is both an
experiential and a limited centre (see chapter four for the subjectivity in always and chapter seven
for the subjectivity in negatively charged words like "unremitting"). Thus the speaking voice
belongs to Gerald in the last moments of his life.
Sometimes there is an overlap between the character's viewpoint and the narrator's reportive
stance so that it becomes difficult to distinguish between them:
It was empty of traffic. He turned right toward town. (SRB:138)
The first sentence is definitely experiential since it emanates from Dasein's noticing the
emptiness of the town from traffic and especially since it occasioned Dasein's turning right.
However, reporting the turning action belongs to the narrator. The problem then concerns the
coordinate right: is it reported by the narrator [Dasein turned to his right]? or experienced by Dasein
[let's turn right]? The second possibility seems more plausible.
Sometimes a deictic orientation can be disengaged into an apparently nondeictic orientation
if the speaker wishes to generalize, as in this passage:
This was one of the places that Sir Geoffrey had cut during the war for trench timber. The
whole knoll, which rose softly on the right of the riding, was denuded and strangely forlorn.
(LCL:43)
The proximal demonstrative , the class-conscious reference to "Sir Geoffrey" and the speaker's
affective projection in the adjectives "denuded and strangely forlorn" leave no doubt that the spatial
coordinate is deictic, namely emanating from Connie as a deictic centre. However, this egocentric
aspect is minimized by the speaker's disengaging tendency. The passage should be reread as "for
any observer in this position on the riding, the knoll is on the right".
* On/to/the left:
A deictic orientation could be signalled by the principle of relevance:
They entered the outskirts of town. There was Scheler's station on the left. (SRB:138)
where the selection of the object of perception signals the speaker's particular interest in it.
Thus in the second sentence, the centre responsible for selecting the object of perception and for
making the logical inference is that of Dasein the driver of the car.
It could also be signalled by other subjectivity indicators present in the text:
The chair chuffed slowly up the incline, rocking and jolting on the frozen clods. And suddenly,
on the left, came a clearing where was nothing but a ravel of dead bracken. (LCL:43)
 The adverb "suddenly" is highly experiential whereas the perception of something missing
"nothing but" signals the frustration of the speaker's expectations. The verb "come" tends to
indicate a movement either to ego's or to the addressee's location now or then (see below). Here,
the perceiver's deictic centre is the destination of come. Thus the speaking voice is Connie's as she
has just discovered an unexpected clearing in the wood.
However, as is the case with the right coordinate, a once deictic orientation can give the
impression of a nondeictic orientation because the speaker embarks on a disengaging process:
A turn, and they ran on the high level to Stacks Gate. Stacks Gate, as seen from the highroad,
was just a huge and gorgeous new hotel, the Coningsby Arms, standing red and white and gilt in
barbarous isolation off the road. But if you looked, you saw on the left rows of handsome "modern"
dwellings. (LCL:160)
The disengaging tools are the deletion of the direction in "a turn" (see the disengaging function
of the indefinite article in chapter six), the omission of the observer's identity [seen by whom?] (see
the verbs of perception in chapter seven) and the person displacement (see the disengaging shift
from first to second person in chapter two). However, strong affective charges are present in the
text. For instance, the appreciative adjectives "huge" and "gorgeous", the depreciatory adjective
"barbarous" and the quotation marks signalling the speaker's reservations about the appropriateness
of the description (see chapter seven) all point to Lady Chatterley as the speaker.2
III.4.3 Degrees of speaker's precision in locating referents:
This section assumes prior reading of the sections on quantifiers and intensifiers in chapter
six. However, the main argument is that these devices have strong affinities with modality in its
broad sense because their choice depends on the speaker's attitude. Thus some, every, all and
enough are positive and mark an actualizing tendency whereas any, no, none, barely, scarcely are
negative and mark a virtualizing tendency (Joly, 1980). When co-occurring with spatial
coordinates, they mark different degrees of the speaker's epistemic certainty or precision about the
location.
* Somewhere vs nowhere:
What somewhere does is confirm the existence of the object but at the same time obscure
the exact location. In narratives, its occurrence often indicates the speaker's limitations in the sense
of inability to locate an object:
Tender! Somewhere she was tender, tender with a tenderness of the growing hyacinths,
something that has gone out of the celluloid women of today. (LCL:124)
The speaker's limitations are highlighted by the repetition of some in somewhere and
something. To this is added the temporal deictic device today and the subjectivity inherent in the
exclamation mark. The speaker is definitely somebody emotionally highly invested in the
utterance, namely Lady Chatterley's lover.
In the case of embedding, it becomes more difficult to attribute the limitation to its
appropriate centre:
"Une immense esp‚rance a travers‚ la terre", he read somewhere, and his comment was..
(LCL:31)
This is a summary of a letter that Connie received from Michaelis. It is not clear whether
Michaelis in his original letter expressed his inability to remember the reference of the quotation, or
whether he mentioned the reference but Connie forgot it, or indeed whether Connie has noticed an
act of plagiarism [he must have picked it up from some book].
In contrast, nowhere is much more subjective than somewhere as it amounts to a total denial
of any existence of the referent, thus a complete investment in the utterance on the part of the
speaker. Unlike the uncertainty of somewhere, nowhere is categorical:
Connie was inclined to agree. What was the good of discontented people who fitted in
nowhere? (LCL:95)
Connie's subjectivity is triply indicated: firstly through the first sentence functioning as a
modality heralder (coined here in analogy with Fehr's "perception heralder"), secondly through the
question mark which is a presence-indicator (see chapter seven) and thirdly through the categorical
denial nowhere [fitted into which pattern? According to what criteria?].
* Anywhere vs everywhere:
As has been argued above anywhere does not concentrate so much on the actual location as
it does focus on the virtual potential location. To illustrate this consider the following passage:
Even since Connie's arrival at Wragby this new place had arisen on the face of the earth, and the
model dwellings had filled with riff-raff drifting in from anywhere, to poach Clifford's rabbits
among other occupations. (LCL:161)
Here, the poachers are being systematically denuded of any identity as human beings. First they
are referred to as "riff-raff" which is a class-conscious dismissal of them as insignificant creatures.
Second, the verb "to drift" is originally used of gases, spirits or any bodiless entities, or indeed for
people who are "rootless"; in other words, these "riff-raff" are portrayed as if they did not really
exist physically. Thirdly, the locative anywhere completes this annihilatory process by refusing to
allocate to these poachers any actual presence in space [which would have necessitated the use of
everywhere]. Fourthly, the reference to Clifford by using his Christian name despite his social
standing reveals that the speaker is socially on an equal footing with him and probably on intimate
terms as well. Thus the speaker is his wife, Lady Chatterley.
Everywhere on the other hand focuses on the actual presence of the referent:
And from the top he could see the country, bright rows of lights at Stacks Gate, smaller lights at
Tavershall pit, the yellow lights of Tavershall and lights everywhere, here and there, on the dark
country, with the distant blush of furnaces, faint and rosy. (LCL:123)
Here it is the actual presence that the speaker laments, hence the use of everywhere. There are
simply too many lights. When taken in conjunction with the other clues indicating the presence of a
perceptual centre [involving visual perception], the spatial locative everywhere indicates the
exasperation of the gamekeeper. Thus the speaking voice is his.
III.4.4 Proximity vs distance [Ego as the axis of reference]:
Since the main objective of this chapter is to show through illustrative examples how spatial
coordinates function as instrumental clues in the identification of the speaking voice, only the
examples where ego is the axis of reference will be discussed.
- Degrees of proximity to ego:
The three illustrative passages will be ordered according from the nearest to the least near,
thus starting by the superlative "nearest", the comparative "nearer" and a mere acknowledgement of
nearness "near at hand". The superlative in the first passage:
Clifford steered cautiously down the slope of the knoll from the hall, and Connie kept her hand
on the chair. In front lay the wood, the hazel thicket nearest, the purplish density of oaks beyond.
(LCL:43)
indicates somebody's perception of the highest degree of nearness to ego, this being Connie. In
the second passage, the verb "grow", together with the comparative "nearer":
She followed the track, and the hammering grew nearer, in the silence of the windy wood, for
trees make a silence even in their noise of wind. (LCL:90)
indicate that the act of perception is dynamic and changing; hence an experiential one. The
nearness is to ego, i.e. Connie. Finally in the third passage:
White and black smoke rose up in steady columns, magic within the dark air. Near at hand
came the long rows of dwellings, approaching curved up the hill-slope, in straight lines along the
brow of the hill. (WIL:12)
the lexical register (see chapter seven) indicates that the speaker has some artistic sensitivities.
Since both Ursula and Gudrun are reportedly walking together, and since Gudrun is the more
artistic of the two sisters, it is probable that the perception of nearness is to her, and by extension to
her sister as a deictic centre.
- Degrees of distance from ego:
The following coordinates are ordered from the nearest to ego up to the furthest from it.
First, the least distant coordinate is "coming apart" in the physical sense. In the next passage:
He was coming apart; but in her breast she felt she could not bear him to leave her uncovered.
He must cover her now for ever. (LCL:139)
 the point of departure is the woman Connie [apart from me]. This egocentric reading is
enhanced by the experiential use of the progressive aspect, the temporal deictic device now (see
chapter four) and the modal auxiliary must (see chapter seven).
As in apart, the movement away from ego can be either spatial or emotional. This affinity
illustrates the above-mentioned connections between physical space and mind space. The next
passage deals with the speaker's perception of a physical distancing away from her deictic-zero-
point (Lyons, 1977):
She lifted her heavy eyes and saw him lapse suddenly away, on a sudden, unknown tide, and the
waves broke over her. (WIL:110)
The experiential reading is corroborated by the further use of the verb of perception "lapse"
[meaning I can no longer see him], the repetition of the suddenness of the action [ego is taken by
surprise] and the passive "unknown" [presupposing the question to whom?]. The speaker is thus
Hermione. However, the distance can be merely affective. What the next passage illustrates is that
the affective is expressed in terms of the physical:
So! He still had not been. He was staying away on purpose. Or perhaps something was wrong.
Perhaps she should go to the cottage and see. (LCL:127)
Although there is a physical dimension to it [the d‚locut‚'s failure to come to the hut], the
perception is of an emotional distancing [away from me, his lover]. The series of modal adverbs
and auxiliaries leave no doubt that the speaker is Connie.
In a little way off the opposition between little and a little lies in the speaker's attitude,
namely lamenting a scarcity or perceiving some sufficiency, respectively. When a little quantifies a
perceived distance, it paradoxically tends to amplify it (see chapter six). That is why the next
passage is selected as a further measure of distance:
The church bells were ringing a little way off, not a cloud was in the sky, the swans were like
lilies on the water below, the peacocks walked with long, prancing steps across the shadow and into
the sunshine of the grass. One wanted to swoon into the by-gone perfection of it all. (WIL:111)
There is no doubt about the fact that the scene is filtered through the consciousness of an
experiential centre deictically present there on the lawn. The deictic spatial coordinates a little way
off and below (see above), the perfect aspect in "were ringing" , the perception of something
missing in "not a cloud", the comparisons, the displaced use of the pronoun "one" indicating a
disengaging shift from the first to the third person, the source of definiteness for the definite articles
etc.. The problem however is to determine who the speaker is. It seems from the sensitivity to the
beauty, indeed to the point of swooning, that the speaker is a woman [the novel is written early into
the twentieth century when the Victorian conception of a woman's proclivity to swoon was still
prevalent]. Thus the speaker is either Ursula who is known for her romantic temperament, or
Gudrun who is an artist.
At the farthest but still perceptible point from ego, consider the following series of
coordinates:
the Albert-road was a line of faintly luminous pale green- the tint of gaslight seen among trees;
beyond, the park lay black and mysterious, and still further, a yellow mist beneath and a coppery
hue in the sky above marked the blaze of the Marylebone thoroughfares. (MWN:1)
The levels of distance here are measured with respect to the spatial sphere of an observer who is
perceptually limited [especially the perception of "faintly luminous", "black and mysterious",
"yellow mist", "coppery hue" all of which involve factors like distance and light] (see chapter
eight). The speaker has to be a character from within the story.

III.5 The ostensive function of spatial locatives:

The affinities with demonstratives will be mostly discussed in chapter five. Here the deicticity
of spatial locatives is emphasised.
III.5.1 Basic underlying system of here vs there:
If we take the spatio-temporal present of the speaker to be the criterion for reference, then
we are led to the binary opposition between the "spatial sphere of I" and the "spatial sphere of the
other". This could be best understood when we contrast here and there. When the speaker says
here, he is necessarily referring to a flexible location in space which includes his narrow spatial
finitude (that is, the spot he is occupying at the moment of utterance). This location is flexible and
variable in its extension because one could easily say here to refer to his office, to the town he is in,
to the country, continent or even the globe as opposed to a larger location outside this restricted
zone (Joly & Fraser,1979-80). Here effects a series of concentric rings (Brown & Yule, 1983:52):
It must be clear that the spatial location identified by here ...could be interpreted as a series of
concentric rings spreading out from the speaker and encompassing different amounts of physical
space, but the interpretation of the spatial range of the expression here on any particular occasion of
use will have to be sought in the context of what the speaker is talking about. What appears to be
stable ...is that the deictic centre is located where the speaker is.
Any location outside the zone defined by the speaker to be here is part of there (that is, all the
space the speaker thinks he does not occupy). There could well refer to the location occupied by
the addressee (there1) or that occupied by some given d‚locut‚ (there2) or indeed any other
possibility (theren).
This brings us back to the two contrasted spheres, namely the "sphere of I" (i.e. all spatial
references which are included in or defined with respect to the spatial cut made by the speaker to
include his spatial finitude) as opposed to the "sphere of the other" which is excluded from the
speaker's sphere. Here again we find the two fundamental movements of inclusion (movement
towards the "sphere of I") versus exclusion (movement away from the "sphere of I" into the the
"sphere of the other") (Fraser & Joly, 1979-80).
Affinities have been perceived to obtain between the deictic opposition here vs not here and
the non-deictic opposition inside vs outside (Lyons, 1977:699):
there is an intuitive connexion between the deictic distinction of "here" vs "not-here" and the
non- deictic distinction of "inside" vs "outside": i.e. "X is here" can be interpreted as "X is within
the space which contains SELF". The notion of containment, or interiority, is obviously a very
basic notion.
To illustrate this proximal vs distal opposition consider the contrastive uses of here and there in
the next passage:
And the authorities felt ridiculous, and behaved in a rather ridiculous fashion, and it was all a
mad hatter's tea-party for a while. Till things developed over there, and Lloyd George came to save
the situation over here. And this surpassed even ridicule, the flippant young laughed no more.
(LCL:11-12)
The deictic zero point is Clifford's England construed as here as opposed to the united forces of
Germany and Turkey ousted from self as there.
III.5.2 Affinities between spatial locatives and demonstratives:
Two major points could be made about the spatial locatives here/there and the
demonstratives. First, both are deictic (Lyons:646) and function in terms of proximity to ego versus
distance from it. Thus this/these are akin to here whereas that/those are akin to there (Lyons,
1977:650-1). The connection between here and this can be explicit as in the following passage:
Beauty! What beauty! a sudden little flame of new awareness went through her. How was it
possible, this beauty here, where she had previously only been repelled? (LCL:182)
where Connie is actually holding her lover fast in an ecstatic embrace; or it could be implicit:
Like hillocks of sand, the Arabs say, soft and downward-slipping with a long slope. Here the
life still lingered hoping. But here too she was thinner, and going unripe, astringent. (LCL:73)
where Connie is looking at her body in the mirror and pointing to a particular region of her
anatomy. In both texts however, Connie is the obvious speaker (see chapter five for the
demonstratives).
There on the other hand has strong affinities with the distal demonstrative that. To illustrate
this affinity, consider the use of there in the following two excerpts:
Connie looked, and there, sure enough, was a big black cat, stretched out grimly, with a bit of
blood on it. (LCL:61)
She started out of her muse, and gave a little cry of fear. A man was there. (LCL:137)
In the first passage, Connie's looking serves as a perception heralder (Fehr, 1938) attributing
what comes after to the character's perception. The modal component in "sure enough" leaves no
doubt that the cognitive and perceptual centre is Connie. In the second passage, the act of locating
explains the cause of the character's fit of terror. Thus it also emanates from Connie, as she is a
woman on her own in the wood.
However, as will be apparent below, here can co-occur with the distal that/those whilst there
can co-occur with the proximal this. The next passage illustrates the this/there paradox:
He felt if he could not be alone, and if he could not be left alone, he would die. His recoil away
from the outer world was complete; his last refuge was this wood; to hide himself there! (LCL:90)
The demonstrative this functions here egocentrically as a deictic pointer to ego's deictic space.
However, instead of the expected proximal here we have the distal there. The reason must be the
speaker's affective alienation from the prospect of isolation (see the sample affective effects below).
III.5.3 Affinities between spatial and temporal locatives:
Here tends to be associated with now whereas there is associated with then. This is hardly
surprising since analogously with here, now signals the speaker's perception of a temporal zone of
various degrees of extension coinciding with the speech moment whereas like there, then reveals
the speaker's perception of a sphere of various degrees of extension projected outside the sphere
delimited as here (see also chapter four). To illustrate the affinity between here and now consider
the following passage:
A heavy, copper-coloured beam of light came in at the west window, gilding the outlines of the
children's heads with red gold, and falling on the wall opposite in a rich, ruddy illumination.
Ursula, however, was scarcely conscious of it. She was busy, the end of the day was here, the work
on as a peaceful tide that is at flood, hushed to retire. (WIL:38)
A possible rephrasing of here is "now is the end of the day". The reference to this spatio-
temporal coordinate functions as an implicit explanation of "she was busy". Thus this causality
confers on the spatio-temporal location an experiential, hence deictic significance. The speaking
voice in the last sentence is Ursula's.
The affinity between there and then on the other hand could be illustrated by their co-
occurrence in the following extract:
But Connie's heart simply stood still at the thought of abandoning Clifford there and then. She
couldn't do it. No... no! She just couldn't. (LCL:81)
If only spatial considerations had been counted we should have had the temporal proximal now
since only the spatial distance was important [Clifford is now there in the Midlands away from me];
the decision to break relations could have taken immediate effect through the use of now. However,
the use of then adds a further temporal distance to make the prospect of separation more affectively
distant than ever. The speaking voice is Connie's.
 III.5.4 The shifting reference of here and there:
Various affective factors influence the selection of the spatial deictics here and there. These
factors contribute to the opacity of their reference. Two of these ambiguating factors will be
discussed.
III.5.4.1 Deictic ambiguity:
The main characteristic of Jakobson's shifters is their compulsory reference to the
participants of the speech event (which has been discussed in Chapter one). This reference however
is the source of the first confusion in the contextualisation of here and there. Because of its
inevitable connection with the shifting identity of ego, this kind of ambiguity is called deictic
ambiguity. As Adamson (in progress1:16) has put it:
their relativity follows from their egocentricity. Since they are definitionally dependent on I,
their referential meaning varies according to the identity occupying the "I" role and this in turn may
vary with successive speech acts.
The implications of this source of ambiguity for the identification of the speaking voice are too
obvious. First, these two locatives might be taken as immediate presence-indicators revealing the
presence of a deictic centre. However, in a mediated speech, somebody's here could be reported as
somebody else's there; hence a serious source of confusion. How do we know then whether a given
there is not in fact a mediated here? How do we also know that a here in a text belongs to one of
the characters and not for instance to the narrator?
III.5.4.2 Attitudinal ambiguity:
Another source of ambiguity is that hereness depends on the speaker's attitude in terms of
the above-mentioned functional exploitation of spatial deixis for modal purposes (Kress et al
1979:44-5). What is spatially proximal can be affectively distal [subjective distance] and what is
spatially distal can be affectively proximal [subjective nearness]. The affective considerations tend
to be expressed in spatial terms. At the same time, whilst borrowing spatial terminology, they take
priority in determining which deictic device to use. As Adamson (in progress1:16-17) has put it:
HERENESS is in fact doubly unstable, for its reference depends not only on the identity of "I"
but on the intentions of "I". That is to say the extension of many of the deictic terms is decided by
the speaker at the moment of speech, so that HERE can extend to include the universe or contract to
exclude everything but the space behind the speaker's eyes. This, if anywhere is its privileged
position; all other parts of the speaker can be categorized as THERE.
It is not sufficient to disamgiguate here and there deictically. It is also necessary to determine
the extent to which affective factors have impregnated their use. The notion of subjective proximity
or distance introduces into the utterance the subjective presence of an affective centre. Thus, the
deictic devices here and there are doubly indicative of subjective presence: both deictically and
affectively.
III.5.4.3 Sample affective contrasts of here vs there:
a) Proximity vs distance:
The first parameter is the opposition between proximity and distance. Here signals the
speaker's perception of proximity whilst there indicates his perception of distance. To illustrate
this, consider the use of here in the next passage:
He surged painfully up, sometimes having to cross a slope of black rock, that was blown bare of
snow. Here he was afraid of falling, very much afraid of falling. And high up here, on the crest,
moved a wind that almost overpowered him with a sleep-heavy iciness. Only it was not Here, the
end, and he must still go on. (WIL:532)
The frequent occurrence of here indicates the speaker's perception of a spatial sphere where he
sees himself as presently existing. Thus the deictic centre is also an experiential centre feeling the
impact of the cold (see chapter eleven). The speaker is Gerald.
There on the other hand signals the speaker's perception of a location outside what is defined
to be here. It has been shown to have strong affinities with the distal demonstrative that. Its
occurrence signals a spatial and often emotional distancing from ego:
It was not woman's fault, nor even love's fault, nor the fault of sex. The fault lay there, out
there, in those evil electric lights and diabolical rattlings of engines. (LCL:123)
The objects of visual and auditory perception are perceived to be outside ego's spatial and
emotional here. The speaker is deictically, perceptually and affectively anchored at the story level.
This centre is the gamekeeper. The narrator's intervention is registered on the temporal level.
b) Heightened involvement vs inertia:
The opposition between here and there may also signal the speaker's heightened personal
involvement [I am directly concerned] versus total inertia [I could not care less] respectively. On
the one hand, Gudrun's emotional investment in the next utterance:
She seemed to look at him as at a pebble far away under clear dark water. And here was she,
left with all the anguish of consciousness, whilst he was sunk deep into the other element of
mindless, remote, living shadow-gleam. (WIL:390)
stems from the opposition here vs an implied there as inferred from the use of far away.
However, the opposition is not spatially true since Gerald is sleeping next to her in the same bed,
probably to the touching point; hence the expectation of a here. Therefore the contrast must be
emotional [he is not consciously and emotionally here with me].
On the other hand, the use of there when here is expected can signal the speaker's lack of
commitment to a course of action or to the location in question:
But she was getting cold; yet the overwhelming inertia of her inner resentment kept her there as
if paralyzed. (LCL:97)
The progressive aspect signals the presence of an experiential centre feeling the cold (see
chapter four), namely Connie. However, if this centre is hers, the proximal here should have been
used. The use of there must therefore be determined by the speaker's distancing herself from the
place which she does not like to be in under those circumstances.
c) Interest vs lack of interest:
When the speaker's interest is aroused the natural choice is here. In the absence of interest,
the normal choice is there. Thus Gudrun is the speaker in the next passage:
There was none that had anything unknown, unresolved, until the Criches themselves began to
appear. Then her interest was piqued. Here was something not quite so preconcluded. (WIL:15)
The use of the deictic here signals her own interest. Similarly, Connie is the speaker in the
second passage:
He [Clifford] would sit alone for hours listening to the loudspeaker bellowing forth. It amazed
and stunned Connie. But there he would sit, with a blank entranced expression on his face.
(LCL:113-4)
Her estrangement could be gathered not only from the distal there, but also from the verb
"bellowing forth" [perception of some unpleasant noise] and from the familiarity inherent in would
[I have known him to do that for a long time].
d) Salience vs expulsion outside self:
Here is used to mark a high degree of salience of an object in the speaker's mind. There on
the other hand expels the referent from self. In the next passage, the deictic centre responsible for
the use of here is quite problematic:
She listened to the tapping of the man's hammer; it was not so happy. He was oppressed. Here
was a trespass on his privacy, and a dangerous one! (LCL:91)
Three possibilities are equally plausible. The speaker may be the gamekeeper as slightly
mediated by the narrator [Mellors' "here is a trespass on my privacy and a dangerous one" is
mediated at the temporal and personal levels by the narrator]. The speaker may also be the keeper
as imagined by Connie [he must be saying to himself "here is a trespass on my privacy and a
dangerous one"]. Finally, the speaker may be Connie explaining to herself the cause of what she
has perceived to be the keeper's oppression.
There does not normally co-occur with the proximal these. However, under certain
emotional conditions it does, as in the next passage:
She felt the time not far off when she would be buried there, added to the ghastly host under the
tombstones and the monuments, in these filthy Midlands. (LCL:78)
The use of the proximal these can be accounted for both by Connie's living in the Midlands and
by the salience of this situation in her mind. Spatially, the proximal here is normally expected to be
used. The use of there however distances the whole topic from the speaker's mind [it is a ghastly
topic best kept out of mind]. The speaker is Connie.
e) Availability vs nonavailability of referent:
Here can signal the speaker's perception of the availability of the referent whereas there
signals the perception that it is not easily available:
He could give Winifred into her [Gudrun's] hands as into the hands of a right being. Here was a
direction and a positive force to be lent to his child, he need not leave her directionless and
defenseless. (WIL:248)
The use of the modal "need do X" and the evaluative adjective "positive" together with the
decisively affective here leaves no doubt that the speaker is Mr Crich. On the other hand, there in
the next passage:
There was plenty of coal. The old workings could not get at it, that was all. Then break the
neck of the old workings. The coal lay there in its seams, even though the seams were thin. There
it lay, inert matter, as it had always lain, since the beginning of time, subject to the will of man. The
will of man was the determining factor. (LCL:251)
signals the speaker's frustration at the inaccessibility of the coal. The ideological statement of
the last sentence leaves no doubt that the speaker is Clifford, the enthusiastic entrepreneur.
f) Perception of presence vs absence:
Here is associated with the presupposition of existence whereas there minimizes the impact
of this presupposition. Thus, the speaker in the next passage laments the lack of presence of the
referent:
"Oh, you're quite right!" he said, turning his head away, and looking sideways, downwards, with
that strange immobility of an old race that is hardly here in our present time. (LCL:26)
The speaker's presence is corroborated by the use of the diminisher hardly signalling
somebody's perception of insufficiency , the temporal locative "our present time", the estranged
demonstrative that and the adjective of estrangement "strange". The presupposition of existence is
at stake. It is not clear who the speaker is: Connie? the narrator? D. H. Lawrence?
There on the other hand obscures this presupposition of existence, as is testified by its use in
the following passage:
And thus far it was a life: in the void. For the rest it was non-existence. Wragby was there, the
servants... but spectral, not really existing. (LCL:19)
Connie is living in Wragby. The normal locative should have been here. However, the use of
there distances her from her location by denying the bond of existence between them.
g) There as a targeting device:
 Like that, there could be used as a targeting device. Thus in the next extract:
Terrible shocks ran over her body, like shocks of electricity, as if many volts of electricity
suddenly struck her down. She was aware of him sitting silently there, an unthinkable evil
obstruction. (WIL:117)
the perception of Birkin as an "unthinkable evil obstruction" needing to be got rid of attributes
to there the targeting function of that. It is with respect to Hermione's spatio-affective here that
Birkin is perceived to be there.
III.5.5 Spatial displacements:
Speech is not always canonical. Many factors can enter into play to cause canonical
considerations to change into displaced uses. Here are a few samples.
III.5.5.1 Shift from here to there:
A latent here can be transformed into a surface there for many reasons the most common of
which are:
* distancing:
If the speaker feels emotionally estranged to the referent, then whatever the degree of
physical proximity, affective distancing takes priority and determines the use of there. In the next
passage, the speaker could not have been any closer to the d‚locut‚ in physical terms:
He lay there with his arms round her, his body on hers, his wet body touching hers, so close.
And completely unknown. (LCL:121)
In spatial terms the use of there cannot be justified. The reason must reside in the the attribute
"completely unknown" [to whom?]. The speaker is Connie.
* inaccessibility:
Sometimes, you can hold something in your hand but still locate it there because you
somehow feel you have no access to or control over it. Thus in the next excerpt:
She took the little drab thing between her hands, and there it stood, on its impossible little stalks
of legs. (LCL:118)
Connie is holding the small chick in her hands. However, her latent maternal feelings are
frustrated as she could entertain as yet no hope of ever having a baby. This impossibility bars her
from having any real communion with the chick; hence the distal there.
* embedding:
Sometimes the narrator's or another character's mediation turns a latent here into a surface
there. Thus the keeper's ruminations in the next passage:
The woman! If she could be there with him, and there were nobody else in the world!
(LCL:124)
are highly egocentric. The exclamation marks, the wishful "if", the modal could and the modal
past are clear evidence to this effect. In an egocentric wishful thinking, the normal expectation is to
have the desired object here both spatially and emotionally. However, when somebody's
egocentricity is reported by somebody else, an egocentric here is turned into the mediator's there.
The speaker is Mellors, the gamekeeper.
However, the mediator can either be the narrator at the telling level or another character at
the story level:
- narrator's mediation:
The narrator's mediation can operate at the levels of person (first to third person shifts in
chapter two), space (here to there shifts in this chapter), time (now to then in chapter four), or at any
of the linguistic and perceptual levels illustrated throughout. However, narrators often choose to
limit their intervention to some devices and to leave other devices intact. The various "degrees of
audibility" well argued for in Chatman (1978) and Leech & Short (1981) are the effects generated
by the narrator's manipulation of the degree of intervention.
For instance, in Adamson's Empathetic narrative [better known in the literature as FID], only
certain linguistic items are mediated whilst others remain unchanged. Thus in the next passage:
He looked at his own face. There it was, shapely and healthy and the same as ever, yet
somehow, it was not real, it was a mask. (WIL:261)
the narrator's mediation operates at the levels of space [shift from Gerald's here to the narrator's
there] and time [shift from Gerald's present of conscious perception to the story's past as viewed
from the narrator's present of narrating] (see chapter four). The other subjective indices have
remained intact.
- another character's mediation:
Another layer of mediation is provided when one character's speech is filtered through the
consciousness of another character whose mediating consciousness is further mediated by the
narrator (see levels of mediation in the conclusion). For instance, in the following passage:
Yes, she had to go every Monday morning down to the offices, and stand there a couple of
hours waiting her turn (LCL:83)
Mrs Bolton's embedded speech is summarized by Connie and filtered to us through Connie's
consciousness. Thus it is not clear whose there we are dealing with: Mrs Bolton's or Connie's; in
other words does this locative belong, to the reported consciousness or the reporting consciousness?
And where does the narrator stand?
III.5.5.2 Shift from there to here:
One of the main features of Free Indirect Style [Adamson's Empathetic narrative] is the
cropping up to the surface of presence indicators at the levels of person, time and space in an
otherwise third-person narrative rendered by the narrator. At the spatial level, this is noticed when
the here of a character suddenly appears when only a mediated there is expected:
His perplexity was only superficial, new conditions reigned, the old were surpassed; here one
did as one was possessed to do, no matter what it was. (WIL:83)
Gerald's discourse is mediated by the narrator. However, the emergence of this here reminds
the reader that the latent speaker is Gerald.
III.5.5.3 Adamson's was/here paradox:
Another way of looking at the shift from the narrator's there to the latent character's here is,
following Adamson's terminology, to talk of the was/here paradox. Here is normally associated
with now, not with then if the two emanate from the same I. To what extent can the "same" person
be here and then [defined as not-now] at the same time? If one sat here last week or expects to sit
here next week, are we dealing with the same here as the present I/here/now?
To illustrate the problem what is the status of the here used in the next passage:
She saw a secret little clearing, and a secret little hut made of rustic poles. And she had never
been here before! (LCL:90)
First, whose here is it: Connie's or the narrator's? Second, if it is Connie's, the statement is only
partly true since she has been passing by this place [thus in a sense here] for a long time. However,
what has changed is her awareness of so doing. Therefore, the only true here is the one
immediately associated with the I/now set. As to the I/here/then, it is amenable in fact to an
I/there/then with there overlapping with the present here. Thus the here in I/here/then is in fact a
there when viewed with respect to the I/here/now.
The various deictic configurations are presented in Table 1 below.
These possibilities provide the framework for various shifts and displacements [some of
which have been illustrated in chapter two and many others are either discussed here or will be
illustrated throughout the thesis]. This table also provides the basis for both the affinities and
distinctions between the deictic parameter and the affective one, which interrelationship provides a
major concern of the present work.
To conclude this section speakers could be said to build a here and a now into the text,
providing the reader with clues indicating a hereness/nowness needing to be identified and
contextualized (Adamson, in progress1:16). Thus the spatial deictics are instrumental as presence-
indicators.

III.6. Come versus Go:

The uses of come and go can be either canonical or displaced.
III.6.1. Canonical Uses:
The location of ego or what ego considers to be the defining deictic centre is the determining
factor in the selection of come or go (Fillmore, 1966:233):
whatever the subject or tense of the verb GO may be ...the place to which one GOES is a place
where I am not...The place to which one COMES is a place where I am or where you are.
Fillmore's deictic centre is the destination of come but the non-destination of go (Macrae, 1975).
It is the location of the speaker or, by decision of the speaker, of the addressee at the time of the
utterance or of the proposed action. The verb come is fully deictic as it presupposes the three
deictic categories of person, space and time (Fillmore, 1973:107). Fillmore's conditions for the use
of come centre on the following presuppositions (ibid:108). "X come to Y at T" is only appropriate
in case any of the following conditions obtains:
(i) the speaker is at Y at coding time [movement towards ego]:
The occurrence of come in this egocentric function is an immediate presence-indicator as it
indicates the presence of a deictic centre [this being ego] as the destination of the trajectory as
perceived by ego. Two passages will illustrate the point.
First, the egocentric reading of come tends to co-occur with indices of egocentric visual
perception. Thus, Ursula's reported watching act in the next passage:
The chief bridesmaids had arrived. Ursula watched them come up the steps. (WIL:16)
interacts with the egocentricity of come to prompt the reader to attribute the speaking voice to
her.
The attributing of some significance to a selected aspect or movement of the perceived
object presupposes a motivated egocentric meaning-assignment. In the following passage:
A young man in greasy blue coveralls came around from the left bench where he had been
hidden by a Lincoln Continental lifted halfway up on a hoist. (SRB:138)
It is worth inquiring from whose perceptual centre the d‚locut‚ is perceived to be "hidden" and
how does this fact affect the speaker? What motivates the selection of the information on the make
and position of the car where many other potential features could have been chosen? Clearly, these
cues add to the egocentricity of come and point to Dasein as the speaker.
(ii) the speaker is at Y at event time (T):
Come is not readily coreferential with there. However, When the speaker's imagination is
strong enough, especially in cases of wishful thinking, this co-occurrence is possible as evidenced
by the next passage:
She felt that there, over the strange blind, terrible wall of rocky snow, there in the navel of the
mystic world, among the final cluster of peaks, there, in the infolded navel of it all, was her
consummation. If she could but come there, alone, and pass into the infolded navel of eternal snow
and of uprising, immortal peaks of snow and rock, she would be a oneness with all, she would be
herself the eternal, infinite silence, the sleeping, timeless, frozen centre of the All. (WIL:461)
 Two accounts could be tendered in explanation of this use of come. Deictically, Gudrun is still
here but affectively the strength of her imagination is so that she has already imagined herself at the
point of destination. A more interesting possibility is that she has imaginatively transposed her
deictic centre to the point of destination, and then looked back retrospectively to see the movement
"coming" towards her.
(iii) the addressee is at Y at coding time or at event time:
The occurrence of these two possibilities is rare in third-person narratives and will not add
anything new to the discussion.
As to the uses of go, what is important from a deictic point of view is that the deictic centre
can never be its destination. When used egocentrically to mean "away from here" it becomes
instrumental as a presence-indicator:
The time passed with dream-like slowness, and he did not come. She had only half expected
him. He never came in the afternoon. She must go home to tea. But she had to force herself to
leave. (LCL:126)
According to the above conditions for the use of come, Connie could have used it had she been
happy to come home [since it is her destination]. However, her unhappiness with the prospect of
leaving here [hers] accounts for her use of go. The modal must corroborates this attitudinal reading.
The incompatibility between go and here is so strong that they virtually never co-occur, and even in
such an unlikely happening, their use seems to imply only a schizophrenic or paranormal speaker
(Adamson, in progress1:3).
The various possibilities enumerated above in the basic underlying structure of come and go
may result in potential ambiguity relating to what users of the form may be said to presuppose
(Adamson, ego:21). This ambiguity can cause opacity of reference and added confusion in the
deictic contextualisation of a narrative text.
III.6.2 Affective extension of deixis: normal vs evaluative deixis:
The spatial opposition of come vs go often tends to allow for affective extensions where
come is associated with the speaker's perception of a positive movement towards his affective
sphere whilst go expels the referent outside ego's affective sphere. The determining factor is the
end state of affairs [is it a perception of improvement signalling an approach to the desired point or
is it a deterioration, a departure from the desired point or from normality?] To quote Macrae,
(1975:56):
it is possible that the language does offer a speaker the option of lacing his idioms with
attitudinal nuances by an astute choice of verb. Evidence for this appears where corresponding GO
and COME sentences exist side by side as equally acceptable sentences in the language.
Thus the choice of the verb enables us to deduce information about the speaker's attitude to the
event (Macrae, 1975:57). To illustrate these affective nuances, a few passages are selected. Come
tends to be used when the speaker perceives the appearance of the object of perception to be
welcome:
But still their little heads came poking sharply through the yellow feathers. (LCL:118-19)
Connie is desperately looking for the chicks so that the temporary obstruction of her field of
perception heightens her desire to see their heads. The use of come is her natural choice. Come is
also used to mark a high degree of salience of the object in the speaker's mind [hence a high degree
of speaker involvement]:
At first Connie suffered from the steady resentment that came from the village. (LCL:15)
Connie's direct involvement as a patient, i.e. the object of this resentment accounts for the use of
come and indicates that she is the speaker.
Go, on the other hand signals the speaker's perception of an undesirable state of affairs:
Well, there it was: fated like the rest of things! It was rather awful, but why kick? You couldn't
kick it away. It just went on. Life, like all the rest! (LCL:14)
This affective motivation for the use of go is corroborated by other indices of speaker
involvement (see chapter seven for Uspensky's verba sentiendi [Fowler, 1986] like "well", the
exclamation marks, the question marks and chapter two for the egocentricity behind the use of
disengaged "you"). Go can also indicate the speaker's disillusionment:
The one that got her first was the real dog among dogs, if you go by success! So Michaelis
could keep his tail up. (LCL:29)
The markedly colloquial register, the exclamation mark and the modal "could" together with the
disengaged use of "you" and the reference to Michaelis by his Christian name leave no doubt that
there is a highly subjective locus of consciousness also responsible for the use of go who is
investing a great deal of her emotions in the utterance, namely Connie.

III.7 Manipulation of spatial coordinates for stylistic ends:

As Edourd Morot-sir (1982:132) has put it:
tout texte procŠde selon un double marquage spatio-temporal, variable selon les locuteurs.
L'une des plus grandes originalit‚s d'un texte r‚side dans les innovations stylistiques … partir de
l'ici-ailleurs et de maintenant-hier-demain.
An interesting illustration of a systematic exercise in disengaged spatial location is provided in a
passage that overtly sets out to be as objective as a camera, namely Robbe-Grillet's Snapshot:
There are thus over the fireplace, three halves of the window, which succeed one another almost
without a break, and which are respectively (from left to right): one left half the right way round,
one right half the right way round, and one right half the wrong way round. As the wardrobe is
right in the corner of the room and extends to the very edge of the window, the two right halves of
the latter are only separated by the narrow upright of the wardrobe, which could be the wood
dividing the two sections of the window (the right-hand upright of the left section joined to the left-
hand upright of the right section). The leafless trees in the garden can be seen, over the short
curtain, in the three divisions of the window. (DMD:1)
It is interesting that, although most of the spatial coordinates of right and left are meant to be
nondeictic, [and the author succeeds to a great extent in this respect], the passage contains
nonetheless a significant measure of subjectivity. The highlighted clues are only the most salient
(see chapter seven on modality and on subjectivity in various lexical items and constructions and
chapter six on intensifiers).
SUMMARY:
This chapter has emphasized the centrality of physical and affective space in human
cognition. Deictic subjectivity is first and foremost expressed in spatial terms. Ego is the sum total
of deictic [i.e spatio-temporal] location and affective [i.e attitudinal] force (see part two for the
perceptual component). Proximity to ego or distance from it provides the underlying mechanism
for all other affective effects. Affective proximity or distance are expressed in spatial terms.
However, when there is a clash between the spatial and the affective parameters, affective
considerations take priority. The shifting identity of the speaker is a major source of deictic
ambiguity in egocentric space. The determining role of affectivity is another source of ambiguity,
called attitudinal ambiguity. The various identities of the mediators (either narrators or
characters...) together with the various degrees of each mediator's intervention and especially how
many levels of mediation there are constitute the ultimate source of ambiguity of reference in
narrative.
1 To illustrate the role of culture, some fixed spatial coordinates from the Tunisian city of
Sfax will be examined. There, the primary direction is "ALQIBLAH" [the frontal direction of
Makka] which is the axis of reference with respect to which all the other directions are determined
(locally corresponding to the geographical East and is very positively marked). Once a person or a
house is facing "ALQIBLAH", the opposite direction is automatically called "ALDHAHRAH"
[literally meaning the direction of the back], locally corresponding to the geographical West and
normally negative. Once this primary horizontal dimension is established, the right-hand-side of
someone facing "ALQIBLAH" becomes "ALGHARB" [literally the West] but geographically
corresponding to the South and is negatively viewed . The left-hand-side is "ASHARQ" [literally
the East] corresponding to the geographical North and is highly positive. These dimensions have
become standardized and correlate with basic climatic cycles (the intersection between "ASHARQ"
and "ALQIBLAH" corresponding to the place where the sun rises and is very cool and shady in the
afternoon in addition to its religious significance, hence the favourable associations) whereas (the
intersection between "ALDHAHRAH" and "ALGHARB" corresponds to the place where the sun
sets and tends to be either too cold in winter or too hot in summer, hence the negative associations).

2 It may be of interest to notice also the cultural values attached to right/left opposition in
many languages, especially in Arabic, which adds an extra ideological factor which is highly
instrumental in the identification of the speaking voice.