The deixis , in pragmatics and semantics, is a concept that refers to the linguistic phenomenon by means of which some words or phrases receive part of their meaning via context and the orientation of the speaker. Those words are called deictics. The word deixis comes from the Greek δεῖξις and it is a noun of the same verb family deicmyni what it means to show, point, point out, among others.
Now, deictic expressions (here, tomorrow, he, that) occur in all known human languages. They are usually used to identify objects in the immediate context in which they are pronounced, by pointing them to direct attention towards them.
Example of deixis of place. Source: commons.wikimedia.org
The object stands out as a focus. Then, a successful act of deictic reference is one in which the interlocutors attend to the same referential object.
In this way, the term deixis is applied to the use of expressions in which the meaning depends on the characteristics of the communicative act. This includes when and where this act takes place, and who is involved as a speaker and as a recipient.
For example, the words"now"and"here"are used to refer respectively to the time and place of the broadcast. The expression"in this city"is likely to be interpreted as the city in which the statement takes place.
Certain pronouns have the ability to have meaning, but also point to other entities as a reference. Thus, the pronoun"I", for example, means"first person singular", but it does not refer to a single person. Point out to anyone who uses it. The meaning of the first person singular is stable, but the reference changes from user to user.
In summary, the deictic expressions make reference to the context. Therefore, contextual information is required to complete its meaning. These expressions are usually focused from the perspective of the speaker. Therefore it is said that deixis is egocentric.
Index
- 1 Types of deixis and examples
- 1.1 Personal deixis
- 1.2 Space Deixis
- 1.3 Temporal Deixis
- 1.4 Deixis of speech
- 1.5 Social deixis
- 1.6 Affective or empathic deixis
- 2 References
Types of deixis and examples
Personal deixis
Personal deixis is carried out using personal pronouns. The speaker as first person (me), directs a statement to the listener as the second person (you), and could be talking about a third person, him or her.
Personal deictic expressions include personal pronouns (me, you, him), possessive (me, you, your, mine, yours, yours) reflective (me, you, se) and reciprocal (we, se), in singular and plural .
Examples:
"East my I love, by a thousand signs, I have seen that he is a madman of tying, and even I do not you I'm behind, because I'm more of a fool than he , well you I follow and you I serve, if the refraph is true that says: 'Say me who are you with, say tea I am who you are ', and the other of' Not with whom you are born, but with whom you make peace '.
( Fragment of The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra )
In this fragment you can see how three people are referred to: me, you and him. The speaker is Sancho Panza. According to the context, the deictic"I"and"my"refer to this character.
The interlocutor is the reader, and there are no deictic expressions that mention it, except the" tea" (to tell you). But, in this proverb, the"you"(as well as the"me"in dime) is undefined (any person). He Y you ( you I'm staying you I follow, you sirvo) is the third person, Don Quixote.
Space Deixis
The spatial deixis is the specification of the relative location of the participants at the time of communication. This is coded through the demonstratives (this, that, that) and the adverbs of place (here, there, above, below, above).
Example:
"I have here , dear friends of mine, the story of the adolescence of that whom you loved so much and who no longer exists. Long time I've made you wait these pages. After writing they have seemed pale and unworthy to be offered as a testimony of my gratitude and my affection. You do not ignore the words he pronounced that terrible night, by placing in my hands the book of his memories:"What there lack you know; You can read even what my tears have erased."
Sweet and sad mission! Read them, then, and if you suspend reading to cry, that Crying will prove to me that I have faithfully fulfilled it."
( Fragment of Mary, by Jorge Isaac )
In the text you can see the game of proximity (here, these) and distance (that, that) of the author through the use of spatial deictics. The pronoun"that"in the phrase the one you loved so much it replaces"that individual"or"that being". The phrase also shows a spatial relationship of the speaker with respect to the listeners (the friends).
Temporal Deixis
The temporal deixis places the perspective of the speaker with respect to the past, the present and the future. This type of deixis is grammaticalized in the adverbs of time (now, tomorrow, then) and in the verb tense.
-"When you start Johnny?
-Do not HE . Today , I believe , Huh, De?
-Do not, day after tomorrow .
-All the world knows the dates less me - grumble Johnny, covering up to the ears with the blanket. I would have sworn what was tonight, and that this afternoon there was to go to rehearse.
-The same gives - has said Dédée-. The question is not do you have sax
- How the same gives ? Do not is the same. Day after tomorrow is after morning , Y tomorrow is long after today . Y today same is pretty after now , in which we're talking with partner Bruno and I I would feel much better if I I could forget about time and drink something hot."
( Fragment of The persecutor, by Julio Cortázar )
The adverbs today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and now place the interlocutors between the present and the future. The same thing happens with verb tenses with some exceptions. Such is the case of the expression"said Dedée". The verb in perfect present denotes a recent past.
Deixis of speech
The deixis of speech or textual deixis refers to the use of a linguistic expression within a statement to indicate preceding or following expressions in the same spoken or written discourse.
If the deictic element refers to a previous portion of the text it is known as anaphora, otherwise it is a catáfora. It should be noted that there are no specific grammatical categories for this class of deixis.
Example:
-"It is that I have kept myself a virgin for you.
She would not have believed it anyway, even if it was true, because her love letters were made of phrases like that that were not worth their meaning but their power of glare. But he liked the courage with which the He said. Florentino Ariza, on the other hand, asked himself suddenly the that she would never have dared to ask herself: what kind of hidden life she had done outside marriage."
( Fragment of Gabriel García Márquez's El amor en las tiempos del cholera )
The neutral pronoun"lo", in this case, refers to portions of the discourse. At the first opportunity it appears, replace the phrase: It's that I've kept myself a virgin for you . Then, the second"it"replaces the following question: what kind of hidden life had she done outside of marriage
Social deixis
The social deixis deals with the coding of the social status of the speaker, the addressee or a third person to whom reference is made. This also refers to the social relationships that exist between them.
Honorary people like"Your Excellency"or"Your Majesty"are an example of this. Likewise, in the case of the Spanish language, the pronouns"tú"and"usted"denote a degree of informality and formality among the speakers.
Example:
"Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the idea of duty are things that in case of error can be disgusting; but, even disgusting, they are great; your Majesty , proper to human consciousness, subsists in horror; they are virtues that have a vice, the error. The ruthless and honest bliss of a fanatic in the midst of atrocity preserves some dismal, but respectable, radiance. Undoubtedly Javert, in his happiness, was worthy of pity, like all ignorant who triumphs."
( Fragment of the miserables, by Victor Hugo )
In this case, the honorific"his majesty"portrays the social relationship between the speaker and his interlocutor.
Affective or empathic deixis
This type of deixis refers to the metaphorical use of deictic forms to indicate distance or emotional or psychological proximity between a speaker and a referent.
Thus, the expressions"These boys, sincerely!"Does not necessarily refer to a physical close location, but to an affective one.
Example:
"This is Gervasia, that of Manuelito. This is Francisca, that of Andrés Ramón, Genoveva, Altagracia. . . The heifers¹ Sandovaleras, as they say around here.
In mautes² I have nothing those three zagaletones ³ that his macundos bongo . The inheritance left to me by the children: eleven mouths with their full teeth".
( Fragment of Doña Bárbara, by Rómulo Gallegos )
Notes
1: Heifer: breeding of cattle, female.
2: Maute: calf, breeding of cattle, male.
3: Zagaletón: adolescent, person who does not do anything or has no profession, rebel.
4: Macundo: frets, objects (in Venezuela)
5: Bongo: a canoe class used by indigenous people
In this example, the speaker, a grandfather, is presenting his grandchildren males and females. He compares them to cattle. But when referring to"those three zagaletones", there seems to be an emotional rather than physical distancing with respect to males. This is not perceived when talking about granddaughters.
References
- Olza Zubir, J. (2007). Deixis Caracas: Andrés Bello Catholic University.
- Fromkin, V.; Rodman, R. and Hyams, N. (2018). An Introduction to Language
Boston: Cengage Learning. - Hanks, W. (s / f). Deixis and Pragmatics. Retrieved on February 17, 2018, from linguistics.oxfordre.com.
- Nordquist, R. (2018, January 13). Deictic Expression (Deixis). Retrieved on February 17, 2018, from thoughtco.com.
- Hazen, K. (2014). An Introduction to Language. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
- Renkema, J. (2004). Introduction to Discourse Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
- Rodríguez Guzmán J. P. (2005). Graphic grammar to the juampedrino mode. Barcelona: Carena Editions.
- Huang, Y. (2012). The Oxford Dictionary of Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.
FAQs
What is deixis and examples? ›
In linguistics, deixis (/ˈdaɪksɪs/, /ˈdeɪksɪs/) is the use of general words and phrases to refer to a specific time, place, or person in context, e.g., the words tomorrow, there, and they.
What are the types of deixis? ›Types of Deixis
Deixis has an important role in studying pragmatics. It helps people to interpret the meaning of a certain sentence based on its context. It is supported by Levinson (1983:68-94) defining the deixis into five types, they are: person deixis, place deixis, time deixis, social deixis and discourse deixis.
Deixis is a type of reference constituted by the meaning of a linguistic sign being relativized to the extra-linguistic context in which the sign is used.
What are the three main types of deictic expressions? ›The most common kinds of deictic expressions are personal, depending on the identity of the speaker, spatial, which depend on where the speaker is when they say the phrase, and temporal, which depend on the time the speaker says the phrase.
What means deixis? ›Definition of deixis
: the pointing or specifying function of some words (such as definite articles and demonstrative pronouns) whose denotation changes from one discourse to another.
Deixis in pragmatics and semantics
Pragmatics which analyzes the word and the language in situational terms and in relation to the cultural, temporal, spatial, social context, etc. the process makes it easier to have a better view of the thought that is being transmitted.
Deixis is an important field studied in pragmatics, semantics and linguistics. Deixis refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words or phrases that require contextual information to convey meaning are deictic. (
What is social deixis? ›Social deixis is the linguistic expressions that show the status of the speaker, the addressee, or a third person or entity referred to, as well as the social relationships holding between them. Social deixis deals with forms of address and the way are used by the communicators.
What is temporal and spatial deixis? ›spatial deixis ('here', 'there'), or time via temporal deixis ('now', 'then'). Deixis is clearly a. form of referring that is tied to the speaker's context, with the most basic distinction between. deictic expressions being 'near speaker' versus 'away from speaker'.
What is deixis in pragmatics Slideshare? ›2. Deixis • Deixis means “pointing via language”. Any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called a deictic expression. Words like here, there, this, that, now and then, as well as most pronouns, such as I, we, you, he, her and them are deictic expressions.
What is presupposition linguistics? ›
In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition (or PSP) is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include: Jane no longer writes fiction. Presupposition: Jane once wrote fiction.
What is the difference between deixis and reference? ›In anaphora, the referent is an element of the current discourse itself, whereas in deixis, the referent is outside the discourse in its spatiotemporal surroundings. This difference between the lexical and the physical has traditionally led to distinct theoretical treatments of such referents.
How do you use deictic in a sentence? ›Deictic definition
In the sentence I want him to come here now, the words I, here, him, and now are deictic because the determination of their referents depends on who says that sentence, and where, when, and of whom it is said.
How To Say Deixis - YouTube
What is deixis poetry? ›One aspect of the language of point of view is what is known as deixis. Deictic words 'point' to entities, places or moments in time, but, notably, in doing so signal the subjective position of the speaker in that instance of pointing. Words like 'I', 'here' and 'now' are deictic.
What is reference in pragmatics? ›Reference, as the act of the speaker/writer using a linguistic form to enable a listener/reader to identify something, depends on the speaker's intentions (e.g. to refer to sth.) and on the speaker's beliefs (e.g. so the listener can identify the speaker's intention).
What is the difference between deixis and Anaphoric reference? ›In anaphora, the referent is an element of the current discourse itself, whereas in deixis, the referent is outside the discourse in its spatiotemporal surroundings. This difference between the lexical and the physical has traditionally led to distinct theoretical treatments of such referents.
What is deixis or pointing via language? ›Deixis is the process of pointing through language and its detonation changes from one discourse to another.
Is we a person deixis? ›a. First person (I/We). The first person deixis is a reference that refers to the speaker or both speaker and referent grouped with the speaker which is expressed in singu- lar pronouns (I, me, myself, mine) and plural pronouns (we, us, ourselves, our, ours).
What is deixis analysis? ›Deixis is used to analyze the conversation, utterance or sentence because every utterance is related to the reference about people, place or time. The meaning of the sentences or utterances will be clear if the listener or reader knows about who, where, and when the utterance is uttered.
Are prepositions deictic? ›
Are the adverbs/prepositions 'above' and 'below' deictic? They are clearly speaker-related in most contexts, but they do not express the proximal/distal relationship. So they are not properly deictic, but do express viewpoint relationships.
What is deictic reference? ›1. the use of gestures or other means of pointing to specify an ambiguous utterance, for instance pointing at a place in a map and saying “here.”
What is deictic projection? ›deictic projection: a phenomenon in which the canonical sequencing of. the domains of pastness, presentness and futurity is disrupted, with the. result that one domain gets projected into another to produce a. pragmatically justifiable configuration.
Why is temporal deixis used? ›The distal forms of temporal deixis are used to communicate not only distance from current time but also distance from current reality or facts. What is treated as extremely unlikely or impossible is also marked via the distal form (e.g. If I was a rich girl…).
What is distance in pragmatics? ›It refers to the degree of closeness or alienation in the relationship between the two sides of the communication perceived and confirmed in the specific communication environment. Communicators can maintain or change the existing pragmatic distance by certain linguistic means [1].
What is deixis and its types Slideshare? ›Any linguistic form that we use to accomplish the task of pointing out is called deixis. 4. DIECTIC EXPRESSION The deictic words such as I, we, you, he, she, this, that, it, now, then, here, there, tomorrow, yesterday, etc., are different linguistic forms and are called deictic expressions.
What is non deictic expression? ›The non-deictic that expresses a state of knowledge, fixed belief, inference based upon evidence, conscious mental activity, remote events, public information, old information, indirectness, and formality, whereas the construction without that realizes yet unproven information, groundless hearsay, inference without ...
What is an implicative verb? ›an implicative main verb carries a presupposition of some necessary and suffi- cient condition which alone determines whether the event described in the com- plement took place. The main sentence can be looked upon as a statement about. whether this decisive condition is fulfilled, and under what spatial and tem-
What is entailment in semantics? ›In semantics and pragmatics, entailment is the principle that under certain conditions the truth of one statement ensures the truth of a second statement. Also called strict implication, logical consequence, and semantic consequence.
What is the difference between assumption and presupposition? ›A presupposition of an argument is best understood as pertaining to a propositional element (a premise or the conclusion) In contrast, an assumption of an argument pertains to the argument as a whole in that it is integral to the reasoning or inferential structure of the argument.
What is social deixis in pragmatics? ›
Social deixis is broadly defined as "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" (Huang 2007: 163). ... Respect and deference.
What is the importance of learning deixis in constructing sentences? ›Understanding deixis is very important in language learning. It is one aspect of linguistics which helps students to understand messages and information from the utterances. By understanding it, readers as well as students will broaden their knowledge, especially knowledge about cultures.
What is an anaphora in syntax? ›Forms that must always have an antecedent in the sentence are generally called syntactic anaphors (in this chapter, just 'anaphors'). Pronouns can be free to pick out any previous or anticipated mention as their antecedent, but as we have just seen, they can also be bound.
What type of word is that? ›from English Grammar Today. That is a very common word in both writing and speaking. We use it as a determiner, a demonstrative pronoun and a relative pronoun. We also use it as a conjunction to introduce that-clauses.
What is deictic pointing? ›In face-to-face communication between two people, deictic pointing is more than index finger pointing to a specific target object: it is a complex communicative act that is subject to contextual and cognitive factors and often relays spatial information. Previous work by Wundt (1973. (1973).
How do you say anaphora? ›Break 'anaphora' down into sounds: [UH] + [NAF] + [UH] + [RUH] - say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them.
What is deixis semantics? ›Deixis is an important field studied in pragmatics, semantics and linguistics. Deixis refers to the phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words or phrases that require contextual information to convey meaning are deictic. (
What is the difference between deixis and reference? ›In anaphora, the referent is an element of the current discourse itself, whereas in deixis, the referent is outside the discourse in its spatiotemporal surroundings. This difference between the lexical and the physical has traditionally led to distinct theoretical treatments of such referents.
What is deixis in pragmatics Slideshare? ›2. Deixis • Deixis means “pointing via language”. Any linguistic form used to do this “pointing” is called a deictic expression. Words like here, there, this, that, now and then, as well as most pronouns, such as I, we, you, he, her and them are deictic expressions.
What is an example of a presupposition? ›Presupposition (or more precisely, semantic presupposition) is a kind of inference that sentences of natural languages may have. Some representative examples: (1.1) a. Jane quit smoking presupposition: Jane used to smoke.
Is we a person deixis? ›
a. First person (I/We). The first person deixis is a reference that refers to the speaker or both speaker and referent grouped with the speaker which is expressed in singu- lar pronouns (I, me, myself, mine) and plural pronouns (we, us, ourselves, our, ours).
What is deixis analysis? ›Deixis is used to analyze the conversation, utterance or sentence because every utterance is related to the reference about people, place or time. The meaning of the sentences or utterances will be clear if the listener or reader knows about who, where, and when the utterance is uttered.
How do you pronounce deixis? ›How To Say Deixis - YouTube
What is the importance of learning deixis in constructing sentences? ›Understanding deixis is very important in language learning. It is one aspect of linguistics which helps students to understand messages and information from the utterances. By understanding it, readers as well as students will broaden their knowledge, especially knowledge about cultures.
How do you use deictic in a sentence? ›Deictic definition
In the sentence I want him to come here now, the words I, here, him, and now are deictic because the determination of their referents depends on who says that sentence, and where, when, and of whom it is said.
Deictic pronoun is a pronoun whose reference must be fixed through the context of the utterance.
What is deixis and its types Slideshare? ›Any linguistic form that we use to accomplish the task of pointing out is called deixis. 4. DIECTIC EXPRESSION The deictic words such as I, we, you, he, she, this, that, it, now, then, here, there, tomorrow, yesterday, etc., are different linguistic forms and are called deictic expressions.
What is reference in pragmatics? ›Reference, as the act of the speaker/writer using a linguistic form to enable a listener/reader to identify something, depends on the speaker's intentions (e.g. to refer to sth.) and on the speaker's beliefs (e.g. so the listener can identify the speaker's intention).
What is deixis or pointing via language? ›Deixis is the process of pointing through language and its detonation changes from one discourse to another.
What is implicature semantics? ›“Implicature” denotes either (i) the act of meaning or implying one thing by saying something else, or (ii) the object of that act. Implicatures can be determined by sentence meaning or by conversational context, and can be conventional (in different senses) or unconventional.
What is an implicative verb? ›
an implicative main verb carries a presupposition of some necessary and suffi- cient condition which alone determines whether the event described in the com- plement took place. The main sentence can be looked upon as a statement about. whether this decisive condition is fulfilled, and under what spatial and tem-
What is semantic anomaly? ›Semantic anomaly is the abnormality profile of the linguistic. items in term of combination and interaction of the elements of language in the. different context which may create ambiguity and connotative meaning.