Deixis and Reference in Pragmatics
...which state “away from speaker” such as “that”, “here” or “then”. In some languages there is even the distinction “near addressee” and “away from both speaker and addressee” for the distal term “that”. 2.2. Different forms of deixis 2.2.1. Person deixis Person deixis is divided into three parts, following the grammatical division of first (“I”), second (“you”) and third (“he”, she”, “it”) person. What of course comes in when speaking of person deixis are social aspects. The description which kind of form of person deixis is to choose in which social context is often called social deixis (Verschueren 1999, 20 also calls this attitudinal deixis). Honorifics are an example of this social deixis. Another distinction which is made in many languages, the T/V distinction, also belongs to social deixis. This means there are different expressions used for a familiar and a non-familiar addressee (French tu/vous, German du/sie, Spanish tú/usted). Under this category falls also the distinction between exclusive ‘we’ (speaker plus other(s), addressee excluded) and inclusive ‘we’ (speaker and addressee included). Some languages though not English even grammaticize this distinction with different forms for either use. If this is not the case sentences with we can become ambiguous. We clean up after ourselves around here. (Yule 1996 10f) 2.2.2. Spatial deixis Spatial deixis describes the distance, the relative location between people and things. In modern English there are two adverbs used to describe this relation, “here” and “there”. Even some words of motion can have a deictic sense when they express movement to or away from the speaker: (Yule 1996, 12) Come to bed! (movement to the speaker) Go to bed! (movement away from the speaker) 2.2.3. Temporal deixis Temporal deixis is usually formed with the adverbs “now” referring to the speaker’s time of uttering and “then” in contrast to expresses past as well as future time relative to the speaker’s present time. Temporal deixis is also expressed by the different tenses with present tense being the proximal form and past tense being the distal form. I live her now. I lived there then. 2.2.4. Discourse deixis Some linguists (Verschueren, Levinson) speak of a fourth kind of deixis. They name references within a text discourse deixis. This corresponds to the references that relate sentences together which will be discussed below. However Verschueren (1999, 21) adds that “Discourse deixis may be of a ‘self-referential’ or ‘reflexive’ kind”. I.e.: writing in a book “in this book” (referring to itself) “this paper” in the introduction of this paper (and here) Further he mentions a “’projective’ kind of discourse deixis”: I would like to tell you this story about.... (projection to the story which will be told) This book will explain... (combination of projection and self-reference) 2.3. Deictic Projection As already touched above it is possible that deictic expressions project into a time or a place which does not belong to the speaker’s context. This is called deictic projection. So a speaker is able to project him/herself into another location before actually being in this position. I’ll come later. (movement to addressee’s location at a later time, not “now”) Yule (1996, 13) points out that technology also creates new contexts in which utterances that were once complete nonsense can now make sense: I am not here now. With “here” meaning the place were this is uttered and “now” meaning the time it is uttered this sentence does not make sense but it is absolutely possible to record this to one’s telephone answering machine. Here deictic projection comes in again, with “now” being the time a caller hears the text and not the time of the actual recording. So we have to extend the meaning of “now” describing the time the speaker is uttering (coding time or CT after Fillmore 1971b cited by Levinson 1983, 62) as well as the time the speaker’s voice is heard(receiving time or RT after Fillmore 1971b cited by Levinson 1983, 62). When RT coincides with CT Levinson following Lyons speaks of deictic simultaneity. Deictic projection is also used “to represent the person, location, and feelings of someone or something else”(Yule 1996, 13): In a pet store: I was looking at this little puppy in a cage with such a sad look on its face. It was like, ‘Oh, I’m so unhappy here, will you set me free?’ The “here” does not refer to the context of the person speaking but to the location of the puppy in whose role the speaker is actually performing. 2.4. Non-deictic use Grundy (2000, 24) brings up the idea that a demonstrative like “you” can, even if it seems absurd at first sight, be used non-deictic or intrinsic. This is the case whenever a demonstrative does not refer to something specific but is used generally and when the time of the utterance is not important. Some examples might make the distinction clear: YOU have to read it and YOU have to read it and YOU have to read it. (Probably combined with a gesture the referents are clearly those pointed at.) I know you’ll enjoy reading the chapter. (Even without a gesture the referent is clearly the reader.) You never know whether to read every chapter or skip one or two. (no clear referent, the sentence is absolutely general) How long ago did the last bus leave? (“last bus” refers to the one bus which most recently left) The last bus leaves at 23.30. (“last bus” refers to the generally last bus on the timetable) I, personally, feel like having to contradict to Grundy’s idea of non-deictic use of demonstratives. Although deixis may sometimes be defined as having to have a clear referent, it seems for me that a reference to a general state or entity can also be deixis. When we think of deixis in the sense of “pointing to” something, I feel like pointing to a general state does not diminish the relevance of the term. 3. Reference Reference can be proper nouns (“John”, “Austria”), definite noun phrases (“the author”, “the island”), indefinite noun phrases (“a man/woman”, “a wonderful place”) and pronouns (“he”, “her”, “them”). As mentioned above some linguists call reference discourse deixis. 3.1. Attributive use – referential use Yule (1996, 18) mentions that “not all referring expressions have identifiable physical referents”. A referent is the person, thing, event... which is referred to. a. There’s a man waiting for you. (existing physical referent) b. He wants to marry a woman with lots of money. c. We’d love to find a nine-foot-tall basketball player. (non-existing physical referent) While in a. and c. there definitely does or does not exist a physical referent, in b. there can be made a distinction. When in b. “a” means “any” and the speaker had no particular p...