CHAPTER SIX: DEIXIS

ABSTRACT OF THE WORK

In the following parts we will provide a cross-linguistic, description analysis of "Deixis".We will start this
analysis with an introduction. After the introduction has been made,we will have the development of
the work. In the development, this is what will be done:

We will define what DEIXIS is.we will see the use of deixis such as gestural and symbolic use.A word will
be said on deictic centre and deictic projection. We will see also basic categories of deixis and other
types of Deixis.We will also consider social and discourse deixis. We will end with a brief conclusion.
Some references will be shown. This is clearly shown in planning below:

0. INTRODUCTION

1. DEVELOPMENT

1.1 DEFINITION

1.2 USE OF DEICTIC EXPRESSION

1.2.1 GESTURAL USE OF DEICTIC

1.2.2 SYMBOLIC USE OF DEICTIC

1.3 DEICTIC CENTRE AND DEICTIC PROJECTION

1.4 BASIC CATEGORIES OF DEIXIS

1.4.1 PERSON DEIXIS

1.4.2 TIME DEIXIS

1.4.3 SPACE DEIXIS

1.5 OTHER TYPES OF DEIXIS

1.5.1 SOCIAL DEIXIS

1.5.2 DISCOURSE DEIXIS

2. CONCLUSION

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Key Words

1. DEIXIS, 2. Spatiotemporal 3. Metalinguistic

RÉSUMÉ DU TRAVAIL

Dans les parties qui suivent, nous allons voir l'analyse descriptive de "déixis" . Dans cette analyse, nous
commençerons avec une introduction. Après nous aurons le développement du travail. Voici ce qui sera
fait dans ce développement : nous allons définir ce qu'est déixis , nous verrons l'emploi de déixis
comme déixis gestuelle et déixis symbolique. Nous éclaircirons aussi entre l'emploi de déixis comme
central et comme projection. Nous verrons aussi les principaux catégories de déixis et autres sortes de
déixis. Nous verrons aussi le déixis social et déixis de discours. Nous chuterons avec une brève
conclusion. Nous proposerons quelques références.Tout ceci est montré dans le plan qui suit :

0. INTRODUCTION

1. DÉVELOPPEMENT

1.1. Définition

1.2 L'emploi de déixis

1.2.1 L'emploi gestuel de déixis

1.2.1 L'emploi symbolique de déixis

1.3 centre deixis et projection déixis

1.4 Les Principaux catégories de déixis

1.4.1 Le déixis de personnes

1.4.2 Le déixis de temps

1.4.3 Le déixis de place

1.5 Les Autres sortes de déixis

1.5.1 Déixis social

1.5.2 Déixis de discours

2. CONCLUSION

3. BIBLIOGRAPHIE

Introduction

Most words mean what they mean regardless of who uses them,and when,where they are used. Indeed
this is exactly why words are so useful.Only if people assign a constant interpretation to a word, they
can have a coherent conversation. All languages contain sets of words whose meaning vary
systematically according to who uses them. They are called: deictic words. The occurrence of them is
called "deixis".

1. DEVELOPMENT

1.1 DEFINITION:

A deixis word is one which takes some elements of its meaning from the context or
situation (i.e the speaker,the addressee,the time and the place) of utterance in which it is used. Deictic
terms help the hearer to identify the referent of referring expression.

In other words,a deictic expression or simply deictic is a word or phrase such as

"this,that,these, those, now,then, here, there, today, yesterday".

1.2 USE OF DEICTIC EXPRESSION

Within deictic use,a further distinction can be drawn between gestural and symbolic use.

1.2.1 GESTURAL USE OF DEICTIC

Gestural can be properly interpreted only by a direct, moment by moment monitoring if some physical
aspects of the speech event.

e.g You and you,but not you, go back to your dorms!

In this example, the deictic expression can be interpreted only if they are accompanied by a physical
demonstration (such as selecting gesture or eye contact) of some sort.

1.2.2 SYMBOLIC USE OF DEICTIC EXPRESSION

Interpretation of the symbolic use of deictic expressions only involves knowing the basic spatiotemporal
parameter of the speech event.

e.g This town is famous for its small antique shops.

If you hear someone uttering this example, you do not expect the utterance to be accompanied by any
physical indication of the referent. Provided that you the general location of the speaker, you can
understand it.

In short, gestural use is the basic use and symbolic use is the extended use.

1.3 DEICTIC CENTRE AND DEICTIC PROJECTION

According to LYONS 1977:646, DEICTIC is organised egocentric way. The default deictic centre in the
terminology of Bühler (1914) of three major categories is the following:

1 the central anchorage point for person is the person who is speaking;
2. Tha for time is the time at which the speaker produces the utterance.

3.that for place is the place where the speaker produces the utterance.

But, informally,we may say that deixis is a self-centred phenomenon, its centre being typically " I-HERE-
NOW".

e.g 1.;Can I go to your office tomorrow at 12:00?

2. Can I come to your office tomorrow at 12:00?

The use of come in second example marks movement toward the deictic centre, therefore, we have a
deictic projection, namely,and the deictic centre has been projected from speaker or to the addressee.

1.4 BASIC CATEGORIES OF DEIXIS

There are 3 categories of deixis: person, place,time.

1.4.1 Person Deixis

It is concerned with the identification of the interlocutors or participants-role in a speech event. It is

comonly expressed by

1. The traditional grammatical category

2. Vocatives

1.4.2 Time Deixis

Time Deixis is concerned with the encoding of temporal points and spans relative to the time at which
an utterance is produced a speech event.

1.4.2.1 TIME

The passage of time is represented in two distinct ways:

1.to regard time as constant and the world as moving through time from the past into the future and

2. to think of the world as stable and of time as flowing through the world from the future to the past.

A distinction can be made between lime point such as "8:00" and time periods such as "tomorrow
evening"

Time periods can be uniquely defined in terms of their beginning and ending points.

"CT" means "coding time" ,i.e the moment if utterance and "RT" means "Receiving Time",i.e the
moment of reception.Under normal circumstances, assuming the default deictic centre,RT can be taken
to be identical to CT.
1.4.2.2 TENSE

There is distinction between metalinguistic tense (M-tense)and linguistic tense (L-tense). M-tense
means the theoritical category of tense, whereas L-tense means the linguistic realisation of M-tense.

1.4.3 SPACE DEIXIS

Space deixis is concerned with the specification of location in space relative to that participants at C.T in
a speech event.

1.4.3.1 FRAMES OF SPATIAL REFERENCE

Frames are coordinate system used to compute and specify the location of objects with respect to other
objects. Cross-linguistically, there are 3 linguistic frames of reference to express spatial relationships
between the entity to be located (referent or figure)and the land mark (ground):

1.intrinsic .e.g the dog is behind the car

2.relative e.g the dog is to the left of the car.

3.absolute e.g the dog is to the east of the car.

1.5 OTHER CATEGORIES OF DEIXIS

In this section,we shall take a look at 2 other types of Deixis : Social and Discourse

1.5.1 SOCIAL DEIXIS

It is concerned with the codification of the social status of the speaker,the addressee,or a third person
or entity referred to as well as the social relationships holding between them.

Defined thus, social deixis is particularly closely associated with person deixis.

COMRIE (1976),LEVINSON (1983:90-1) and BROWN and LEVINSON (1987) distinguish 2 main types of
socially deictic information can be identified:

1. Absolute

2. Relational

Absolute is a form that is reserved for authorized speaker or recipient.e.g "ZHEN" in Imperial China : to
refer to the past emperor himself.

Relational information in social deixis can be represented between:

1. Speaker and referent

2. Speaker and addressee

3. Speaker and bystander

4. Speaker and setting

1.5.2 DISCOURSE DEIXIS

It is concerned with the use a linguistic expression within some utterance to point to point to the
current, preceding or following utterances in the same spoken or written discourse . Discourse deixis can
be said to refer to proposition.

2. CONCLUSION

In this section, we have seen that deictic word is one which takes some elements of its meaning from
the context or situation of utterance in which it is used. Gestural use of deixis can be interpreted only by
a direct, moment by moment monitoring of some physical aspects of the speech event. Symbolic use
involves knowing the basic spatiotemporal parameter of the speech event. There are 3 categories of
deixis : person deixis,time Deixis and space Deixis. Social and discourse are other types of deixis.

3 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Honderich,Ted . 1995. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford:OUP

2. Kreisler ,Charles W. 1998. , Introducing English Semantics.London: Routledge

3. Nordquist, Richard.2020. <<Speech Acts in Linguistics>> ThoughtCo, thoughtco.com/speech -act-

linguistics-1692119

4. Crystal, D.2008. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Sixth Edition. Australia: Blackwell Publishing.

5. Hurford, J. R, B. Heasly ,and M.B Smith. 2007. Semantics A Coursebook. New York: Cambridge
University Press.