UNIVERSITY OF PRISHTINAFACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

DEIXIS AND DISTANCE (MINI-RESEARCH PAPER)

Mentor: Prof.Dr.Linditë Rugova Students: Arbnora Hoti Fllanza Hajrullahu

Prishtinë, 2012

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Table of contents:

1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………...…3

2. Deixis and distance …………………………………………………………........6

2.1 Person deixis ……………………………………………………………………..7

2.2 Spatial deixis ………………………………………………………………….....8

2.3 Temporal deixis ………………………………………………………………...10

3. Other categories ………………………………………………………………..12

3.1 Discourse ……………………………………………………………………….12

3.2 Switch reference ………………………………………………………………13

3.3 Social ……………………………………………………………………………13

3.4 T-V distinction ………………………………………………………………….13

3.5 Honorifics ……………………………………………………………………….14

3.6 Anaphoric reference …………………………………………………………...14

3.7 Exophoric reference ……………………………………………………………14

3.8 Homophoric reference………………………………………………………….14

3.9 Endophoric reference ………………………………………………………….14

3.10 Anaphoric reference ………………………………………………………….14

3.11 Cataphoric reference …………………………………………………………15

4. Deictic center ……………………………………………………………………15

5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….16

6. References ………………………………………………………………………18

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Introduction:

In this paper we have tried to describe the term ‘ deixis’ introducing some definitions by

different researchers, we also tried to give some characteristics and examples of ‘deixis’

and then we elaborated the five types of ‘deixis’.

 According to Yule the term “Deixis” is derived from Greek word for one of the most

basic things we do with utterances. It means ‘pointing’ via language (1996). It

is done by using deictic expression or indexicals in utterance. Deixis signals a referent

and it relates the referent to a common ground shared by the speaker and the addressee.

Levinson also points out that “Deixis is an important field studied in pragmatics,

semantics and linguistics. It refers to the phenomenon where understanding the meaning

of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words and

phrases that require contextual information to convey any meaninag are deictic “( 1995:

10) 1

Another definition of it is that , “Deixis is an important field of language study in its own

right, but it also has some relevance to the analysis of conversations and pragmatics. It is

often and best described as “verbal pointing”, that is to say pointing by means of

language.”2

The linguistic forms of this pointing are called deictic expressions, deictic markers or

deictic words; they are also sometimes called indexicals.

Deictic expressions fall into three categories:

Person deixis (you, us etc),

Spatial deixis (here, there) and

1 1 http://www.scribd.com/doc/91057052/DEIXIS

2http://www.google.com/

#q=deixis&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&ei=W2KNUOW0B83RsgaA14FI&sqi=2&start=10&sa=N&bav=on

.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=d25c19ea07111a8e&bpcl=35466521&biw=1038&bih=642

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Temporal deixis (now, then).

Deixis is clearly tied to the speaker's context, the most basic distinction being between

near the speaker (proximal) and away from the speaker (distal).

Proximal deictic expressions include this, here and now.

Distal deictic expressions include that, there and then.

Proximal expressions are generally interpreted in relation to the speaker's location or

deictic centre. For example now is taken to mean some point or period in time that

matches the time of the speaker's utterance.

Deictic expressions include such lexemes as:

Personal or possessive pronouns (I/you/mine/yours),

Demonstrative pronouns (this/that),

(Spatial/temporal) adverbs (here/there/now),

Other pro-forms (so/do),

Personal or possessive adjectives (my/your),

Demonstrative adjectives (this/that),

Articles (the).

4

“Deixis generally refers to the world outside a text. Reference to the context surrounding

an utterance is often referred to as primary deixis, exophoric deixis or simply deixis.

Primary deixis is used to point to a situation outside a text (situational deixis) or to the

speaker's and hearer's (shared) knowledge of the world (knowledge deixis).”3

Contextual use of deictic expressions is known as secondary deixis, textual deixis or

endophoric deixis. Such expressions can refer either backwards or forwards to other

elements in a text:

Anaphoric deixis is backward pointing, and is the norm in English texts. Examples

include personal and demonstrative pronouns: he, this, such, said, similar, (the) same.

Cataphoric deixis is forward pointing. Examples include: the following, certain, some

(“the speaker raised some objections...”), this (“Let me say this...”), these, several.

1. Deixis and distance

“Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with

utterances. It means “pointing” via language.

Any linguistic form used to accomplish this “pointing” is called a “deictic expression”.

When you notice a strange object and ask, “What is that?”, you are using a deictic

expression (that) to indicate something in the immediate context. Deictic expressions are

also sometimes called indexicals.”4

We have three types of deixis:

3http://www.google.com/

#q=deixis&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&ei=W2KNUOW0B83RsgaA14FI&sqi=2&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or

.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=d25c19ea07111a8e&bpcl=35466521&biw=1038&bih=642

4 George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University press, 1996, p.10

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1. Person deixis (me, you) that are used to refer to people

2. Spatial deixis (here, there) that are used for locations

3. Temporal deixis (now, then) that are used for time.

“All these expressions depend, for their interpretation, on the speaker and hearer sharing

the same context. 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”.

In English, the “near speaker” or proximal terms are this,here, now. The “away from

speaker” or “distal” terms are there, then.”5

Proximal terms are typically interpreted in terms of the speaker’s location, or the deictic

center, so that “now” is generally understood as referring to some point or period in the

time that has the time of the speaker’s utterance at its center.

Distal terms can simply indicate “away from speaker” but, in some languages, can be

used to distinguish between “near addressee” and “away from both speaker and

addressee”.

1.1 Person deixis

“To learn these deictic expressions, we have to discover that each person in a

conversation shifts from being “I” to being “you” constantly. All young children go

through a stage in their learning where this distinction seems problematic and they say

things like “Read you a story” (instead of me, when handing over a favourite book.)”6

Person deixis operates on a basic three part devision, exemplified by the pronouns for the

first person (I) second person (you) and third person (he, she, it). In many other languages

these deictic categories of the speaker depend on the relative social status of the people

5 George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University press, 1996, p.10

6 George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University press, 1996, p.11

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(higher versus lower status). Expressions which indicate higher status are described as

honorifics. These forms are otherwise called social deixis aswell. There is another

category of personal deixis that comes from the destinction between the familiar versus

non-familiar addressee in some languages. This is known as the T/V distinction, from the

French forms “tu”(familiar) and “vous” (non-familiar) and is found in many languages

including German (du/Sie) and Spanish (tu/Usted).

In those social contexts where individuals typically mark distinctions between the social

status of the speaker and addressee, the higher older and more powerful speaker will tend

to use “tu” version to a lower, younger and less powerful addressee, and be addressed by

the “vous” form in return. When social change is taking place, as for example in modern

Spain, where a young businesswoman (higher economic status) is talking to her older

cleaning lady (lower economic status), how do they address each other? I am told that the

age distinction remains more powerful than the economic distinction and the older

woman uses “tu” and the younger uses “Usted”.

Third person pronouns are consequently distal forms in terms of person deixis. Using a

third person form, where a second person form would be possible, is one way of

communicating distance (and non-familiarity) for example:

1. Would his highness like some coffee?

2. a. Somebody didn’t clean up after himself.

2. b. Each person has to clean up after him or herself.

To make the potential less direct as the example (2a) shows or to make a potentially

personal issue seem like an impersonal one, based on a general role as in (2b).

For general rules we can use the form “we” aswell, like: We clean up after ourselves

around here. “

In English, there are two types of “we”. There is the exclusive “we” (speaker plus

other(s), excluding the addressee, and inclusive “we” (speaker and addressee included).

The inclusive-exclusive distinction may also be noted in the difference between saying

“Let’s go” (to some friends) and “Let us go” (To some who has countered the speaker

and friends).

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1.2 Spatial Deixis

“The concept of distance is considered relevant to spatial deixis , whenever relative

location of things is being indicated. Contemporary English uses only two adverbs: here

and there. There are also some verbs of motion, such as come and go, which retain a

deictic sense when they are used to mark movement toward the speaker, for example,

Come to my room, or away from the speaker, as in Go to my room .”7

The location, from the speaker’s perspective, can be fixed mentally as well as physically.

Speakers temporally away from their home location will often continue to use here to

mean the home location, as if they still were in that location. It is described as deictic

projection and we can make more use of its possibilities when technology allows us to

manipulate location. If here means the place of the speaker’s utterance, and now means

the time of this utterance, a sentence like: “I am not here now” on an aswering machine

should be nonsense.

“The basis of spatial deixis is often psychological distance (rather than physical distance).

Usually physical and (metaphorical) psychological distance will appear the same. But a

speaker may wish to mark something physically close as psychologically distant, as when

you indicate an item of food on your plate with “I don't like that”.”8

Contemporary English makes use of only two adverbs, here and there, for the basic

distinction, but in older texts and in some dialects, a much larger set of deictic

expressions can be found. Although “yonder” (more distant from speaker) is still used,

words like “hither” (to this place) and thence (from that place) now sound archaic. These

last two adverbs include the meaning of motion toward or away from the speaker (here,

7 George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University press, 1996, p. 12

8http://www.google.com/

#q=deixis&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&ei=W2KNUOW0B83RsgaA14FI&sqi=2&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or

.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=d25c19ea07111a8e&bpcl=35466521&biw=1038&bih=642

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there). Some verbs of motion, such as “come” and “go” retain a deictic sense when they

are used to mark movement toward the speaker (come to bed) or away (Go to bed).

In considering spatial deixis, however, it is important to remember that location from the

speaker’s perspective can be fixed mentally as well as physically. Speakers temporary

away from their home location will often continue to use “here” to mean the (physically

distant) home location, as if they were still in that location. Speakers also seem to be able

to project themselves into other locations prior to actually being in those locations, as

when they say: “I’ll come later”, (movement to addressee’s location). This is somewhere

described as deictic projection. If here means the place of the speaker’s utterance, than

an utterance such as: “I am not here now”, should be nonsense.

However, I can say this into the recorder of a telephone answering machine, projecting

that I am not there at the moment that somebody is trying to phone me at that moment

and not at the moment of speaking.

It may be that the truly pragmatic basis of spatial deixis is actually psychological

distance. Physically close objects will tend to be treated by the speaker as psychologically

generally be treated as psychologically distant (for ex. That man over there.)

Similar psychological processes seem to be at work in our distinctions between proximal

and distal expressions used to mark temporal deixis.

1.3 Temporal deixis

According to Fillmore (1966), time, or temporal, deixis concerns itself with the various

times involved in and referred to in an utterance. This includes time adverbs like "now",

"then", "soon", and so forth, and also different tenses. A good example is the

word tomorrow, which denotes the consecutive next day after every day. The "tomorrow"

of a day last year was a different day from the "tomorrow" of a day next week. Time

adverbs can be relative to the time when an utterance is made (what Fillmore calls the

"encoding time", or ET) or when the utterance is heard (Fillmore’s "decoding time", or

DT). While these are frequently the same time, they can differ, as in the case of

prerecorded broadcasts or correspondence. For example, if one were to write

It is raining out now, but I hope when you read this it will be sunny.

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the ET and DT would be different, with the former deictic term concerning ET and the

latter the DT.

Tenses are generally separated into absolute (deictic) and relative tenses. So, for example,

simple English past tense is absolute, such as in

He went.

while the pluperfect is relative to some other deictically specified time, as in

He had gone.

In temporal deixis Fillmore (1966 ) also discussed about tenses . Tenses are time

relations in connection to a given point in time. We can distinguish :

as an event/action simultaneously to the speech act ( work )

as an event/ action before the speech act ( worked )

as an event/action after the speech act ( you will work )

“In contrast to now, the distal expression then can be used with both past and future time.

For example:

Last Saturday night? I was at home with a friend then.

Theater at 7 p.m. on Saturday? Okay, I’ll meet you there then.

We also use systems of non-deictic temporal reference such as calendar and clock time.

However, these forms of temporal reference are learned a lot later than the deictic

expressions, such as yesterday, tonight, this week, next week. To interpret all these

expressions, we have to know the time of the utterance. Otherwise, in the case of the

following sentences, for example, we wouldn’t know if we have a short or a long wait

ahead:

I’ll be back in an hour.

Free beer tomorrow.

Also verb tense indication is considered a type of temporal deixis in English.

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I live in Santa Maria (presently).

I lived in Cruz Alta (in the past).

The present tense is considered the proximal form and the past tense the distal form.”9

Something that took place in the past, or that is extremely unlikely from the speaker’s

current situation is marked via the distal (past tense).

Psychological distance can apply to temporal deixis as well. We can treat temporal events

as things that move towards us (into view) or away from us (out of view).

For instance, we speak of the coming year or the approaching year. This may stem from

our perception of things which we see approaching both spatially and in time. We treat

the near or immediate future as being close to utterance time by using the proximal

deictic expression this, as in “this (that is the next) weekend” or “this evening” (said

earlier in the day).

The form now indicates both the time coinciding with the speaker’s utterance and the

time of the speaker’s voice being heard (the hearer’s “now”). In contrast to “Now” the

distal expression “then” applies to both past and future, time relative to the speaker’s

present time.

2. Other categories

Though the traditional categories of deixis are perhaps the most obvious, there are other

types of deixis that are similarly pervasive in language use. These categories of deixis

were first discussed by Fillmore and Lyons.

9http://www.google.com/

#q=deixis&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&ei=W2KNUOW0B83RsgaA14FI&sqi=2&start=10&sa=N&bav=on

.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=d25c19ea07111a8e&bpcl=35466521&biw=1038&bih=642

http://www.scribd.com/doc/91057052/DEIXIS

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2.1 Discourse

Discourse deixis, also referred to as text deixis, and refers to the use of expressions

within an utterance to refer to parts of the discourse that contains the utterance—

including the utterance itself. For example, in

This is a great story.

“this” refers to an upcoming portion of the discourse, and in

That was an amazing day.

“that” refers to a prior portion of the discourse.

Distinction must be made between discourse deixis and anaphora, which is when an

expression makes reference to the same referent as a prior term, as in

Matthew is an incredible athlete; he came in first in the race.

Lyons points out that it is possible for an expression to be both deictic and anaphoric at

the same time. In his example

I was born in London and I have lived here/there all my life.

“here” or “there” function anaphorically in their reference to London, and deictically in

that the choice between “here” or “there” indicates whether the speaker is or is not

currently in London.

The rule of thumb to distinguish the two phenomena is as follows: when an expression

refers to another linguistic expression or a piece of discourse, it is discourse deictic.

When that expression refers to the same item as a prior linguistic expression, it is

anaphoric.

2.2 Switch reference is a type of discourse deixis, and a grammatical feature found in

some languages, which indicates whether the argument of one clause is the same as the

argument of the previous clause. In some languages, this is done through same subject

markers and different subject markers. In the translated example "John punched Tom,

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and left-[same subject marker]," it is John who left, and in "John punched Tom, and left-

(different subject marker)," it is Tom who left.

2.3 Social

Social deixis concerns the social information that is encoded within various expressions,

such as relative social status and familiarity. Two major forms of it are the so-called T-V

distinctions and honorifics.

2.4 T-V distinction

T-V distinctions, named for the Latin “tu” and “vous” (singular and plural versions of

“you”) are the name given to the phenomenon when a language has two different second-

person pronouns. The varying usage of these pronouns indicates something about

formality, familiarity, and/or solidarity between the interactants. So, for example, the T

form might be used when speaking to a friend or social equal, whereas the V form would

be used speaking to a stranger or social superior. This phenomenon is common in

European languages.

2.5 Honorifics

Honorifics are a much more complex form of social deixis than T-V distinctions, though

they encode similar types of social information. They can involve words being marked

with various morphemes as well as nearly entirely different lexicons being used based on

the social status of the interactants. This type of social deixis is found in a variety of

languages, but is especially common in South and East Asia.

2.6 Anaphoric reference

Generally speaking, anaphora refers to the way in which a word or phrase relates to other

text:

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2.7 An exophoric reference refers to language outside of the text in which the

reference is found.

2.8 A homophoric reference is a generic phrase that obtains a specific meaning

through knowledge of its context. For example, the meaning of the phrase "the

Queen" may be determined by the country in which it is spoken. Because there are many

Queens throughout the world, the location of the speaker provides the extra information

that allows an individual Queen to be identified.

2.9 An endophoric reference refers to something inside of the text in which the

reference is found.

2.10 An anaphoric reference, when opposed to cataphora, refers to something

within a text that has been previously identified. For example, in "Susan dropped the

plate. It shattered loudly" the word "it" refers to the phrase "the plate".

2.11 A cataphoric reference refers to something within a text that has not yet been

identified. For example, in "He was very cold. David promptly put on his coat" the

identity of the "he" is unknown until the individual is also referred to as "David".

3. Deictic center

“A deictic center, sometimes referred to as an origo, is a set of theoretical points that a

deictic expression is ‘anchored’ to, such that the evaluation of the meaning of the

expression leads one to the relevant point. As deictic expressions are frequently

egocentric, the center often consists of the speaker at the time and place of the utterance,

and additionally, the place in the discourse and relevant social factors. However, deictic

expressions can also be used in such a way that the deictic center is transferred to other

participants in the exchange, or to persons / places / etc. being described in a

narrative. So, for example, in the sentence:

I’m standing here now.

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The deictic center is simply the person at the time and place of speaking. But say two

people are talking on the phone long-distance, from London to New York. The Londoner

can say

We are going to New York next week.

in which case the deictic center is in London, or they can equally validly say

We are coming to New York next week.

in which case the deictic center is in New York. Similarly, when telling a story about

someone, the deictic center is likely to switch to them. So then in the sentence

He then ran twenty feet to the left.

it is understood that the center is with the person being spoken of, and thus, "to the left"

refers not to the speaker’s left, but to the object of the story’s left, that is, the person

referred to as 'he' at the time immediately before he ran twenty feet.”10

Conclusion10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deixis

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From this paper we could see what deixis are. They are often mixed with the word

reference, even though they are a part of it. Deixis can mainly be found as part of the

demonstrative references, because their function is to show here and there, near and far

and to substitute people with personal pronouns.

In some of the examples we could see that deixis and grammar have both to do with the

direct and indirect speech, where I becomes you and here becomes there, and now

becomes then.

We dealt with three main categories of deixis, which were:

1. Person deixis (you, us etc.) which are used for persons

2. Spatial deixis (here, there) which are used for locations

3. Temporal deixis (now, then) which are used to express the time.

Deictic expressions include such lexemes as:

Personal or possessive pronouns (I/you/mine/yours),

Demonstrative pronouns (this/that),

(Spatial/temporal) adverbs (here/there/now),

Other pro-forms (so/do),

Personal or possessive adjectives (my/your),

Demonstrative adjectives (this/that),

Articles (the).

16

Deixis generally refers to the world outside a text. Reference to the context surrounding

an utterance is often referred to as primary deixis, exophoric deixis or simply deixis.

Primary deixis is used to point to a situation outside a text (situational deixis) or to the

speaker's and hearer's (shared) knowledge of the world (knowledge deixis).

17

References

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deixis

2. G. Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University press, 1996

3. http://www.igewem.tu-dresden.de/die_tu_dresden/fakultaeten/

philosophische_fakultaet/iph/thph/braeuer/lehre/bezugnahme_relevanz/Nunberg

%20-%20IndexicalsandDeixis.pdf

4. http://www.google.com/

#q=deixis&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&ei=W2KNUOW0B83RsgaA14FI&sqi=2&star

t=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=d25c19ea07111a8e&bpcl=354665

21&biw=1038&bih=642

5. M. A.K Halliday, R. Hasan, Cohesion in English, Longman Group Ltd, 1976

6. http://www.scribd.com/doc/91057052/DEIXIS

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