Semantics Deixis

Monday, 8th December 2023
DEIXIS
Presented by: Dhia Firial Al Aathira, Dinda
Aliqah Nasjwa and Zahrah Maulida Dzikirilillah
DEFINITION
Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with utterances
(Yule, 1996, p. 9). It means "pointing via" language. Any linguistic form used to accomplish this
"pointing" is called a deictic expression.
Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexical.
It is the ability to situate the speaker and hearer in relation to one another and to the world
around them.
Levinson (1983, p.55) says that deixis belongs within the domain of pragmatics, because it
directly concerns the relationship between the structure of languages and contexts in which they
are used.
Within linguistic view, deixis refers to the phenomenon where in understanding the meaning of
certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Then, deixis can
give interpretation to the context of the utterance, such as who is speaking, the time or place of
speaking, the gesture of the speaker, the current location in the discourse and the topic of the
discourse.
The deictic words such as: I, We,
You, He, She, This, That, It, Now,
Then, Here, There, Tomorrow etc.
A deictic expression (or deixis) is a word or phrase that points to the time,
place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking. Deixis concerns on the
interpretation of utterances such as:
who is speaking
the time or place of speaking
the gestures of the speaker, or
the current location in the discourse
EXAMPLE
INDEXICAL
DEITIC CENTER
The point of positioning of a speaker is called deictic center. If

a speaker is sitting at a specific place and says: Come here.
The word here in this case is deictic expression which shows
that the location of the speaker is away from the addressee
It has two types: Deictic use and non deictic use
The deictic use can be further divided into 2 types, that is,
Deictic use plus gesture.
Deictic use minus gesture.
The example of deictic use plus gesture:

01 When a teacher says: You will have to read the chapter. In this sentence the
word you is deictic expression, used for only one particular student and it
conveys the meaning that you have to read the chapter, you have to read the
chapter, you have to read the chapter.
02
The example of deictic use minus gesture:
I know you will enjoy reading the chapter.
In this example, the statement is general and is without gesture.
Spatial Deixis
Spatial deixis describes the way language refers to spatial locations, such as those related to
the speaker and the listener. It involves the use of spatial markers and indicators, such as
adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions, to indicate the location of objects or events in space.
Spatial Deixis, also known as space deixis, is related to the spatial locations relevant to an
utterance. Similarly to person deixis, the location may be either those of the speaker and
addressee or those of persons or objects being referred to. The most famous English
examples are :
- The adverbs “here” and “there”
- The demonstrations “this” and “that”
English has a relatively impoverished spatial deictic system, with only two terms, usually
labelled proximal and distal.
Example
Kareen is talking to Jack : “Come here, please!”
Kareen request to Mr. Levin : “Go there to Randalls!”
In closing, spatial deixis is important to remember that

location from the speaker’s perspective can be fixed mentally
as well as physically.
Person Deixis
Person Deixis involves basically the speaker, known as the first person, the addressee,
known as the second person, and other significant participants in the speech situation,
neither speaker nor hearer, these are known as a third person. Cruse (2000. p.319).
In many languages, pronoun usage encodes social deixis. Notice that the third persons
singular forms also encode gender.
Person deixis clearly operates on a basic three-division exemplified by the pronouns for first
(I), second person (you), and third person (he, she or it).
There is kind of dominance relation holding among the terms: first person dominates
second and third person, and second person dominates third person. If the group designated
includes the first person, then a first person plural pronoun must be used, even if there is
only one first person and thousands of second and/or third persons. Similarly, if there is no
first person in the group designated, but at least one second person, then a second person
pronoun is needed.
e.g :
I am going to Makassar
Would you like to have
lunch
I think he arriving
tommorow
Social Deixis
Social deixis is related to direct or indirect references to the
social status and role of participants in speech events.
Levinson (1983, p.89) stated that social deixis concerns with
the aspects of sentences which reflect certain realities of
participants or the social situation in which the speech event
occurs. They show how different social rankings within
society via language take place.
Two types of social deixis
1. Absolute social deixis 2. Relational social deixis
→ a deictic reference usually → a deictic reference to some social
expressed in certain forms of characteristic of referent or deictic
address which will include no reference to a social relationship
comparison of the ranking of the between the speaker and addressee.
speaker and addressee. It is usually a lexical items.
e.g: e.g:
• Your Majesty • My nieces
• Mr. President • My mother
• Your honour • My husband
• My teacher
Temporal Deixis
Temporal deixis refers to linguistic elements that help locate points or intervals on the time
axis. These elements use the moment of utterance as a reference point. Temporal deixis
commonly uses grammatical deictic adverbs of time, especially in tense.
There are thus three major divisions of the time axis:

(i) before the moment of utterance,
(ii) at the time of utterance,
(iii) after the time of utterance.
The most basic temporal deictics in English are 'now' and 'then'. 'Now' is in some ways a kind
of temporal here, and displays the same capacity for indefinite extension. That is, it can refer
to a precise instant or it can accommodate a wide swathe of time. 'Then' points away from the
present, but is indifferent as to direction, which is normally indicated
contextually.
e.g:
• I live here now
• I lived there then
When somebody uttered (a), it means that the deictic center is

close to him because he is still involved in a current situation
at which he uttered the utterance or the situation is still in a
progress, while (b) is considered distal as the situation does
not exist anymore.
Thank You

Semantics Deixis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Semantics Deixis

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Semantics Deixis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Monday, 8th December 2023

The point of positioning of a speaker is called deictic center. If

The example of deictic use plus gesture:

In closing, spatial deixis is important to remember that

There are thus three major divisions of the time axis:

When somebody uttered (a), it means that the deictic center is

You might also like