Types of Deixis

Spatial Deixis (here, there)

Temporal Deixis ( now, then)

Deictic expressions and context

They are among the first words acquired by the

language

Same context

Face to face communication

Deictic Expression and Context

They are among the first words acquired by the

children.

Same context

Face to Face communication

Deictic Center

The time of utterance ; place of utterance, the person

just giving the utterance.

Near Speaker____ Away from speaker

Proximal distal

This, here, now That, there, then

SPATIAL DEIXIS

Spatial deictics is where the relative location of

people and things is being indicated

The most basic spatial deictics are the adverbs here

and there. These can be glossed ‘place near to the

speaker’ and ‘place not near to the speaker’

Here is where we will place the statue.

She was sitting over there.

CONT… Verbs such as ‘come’ and ‘go’ indicate movement

toward the speaker or away from the speaker

Demonstratives e.g. “this” and“that”

I enjoy living in this city

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE The basis of spatial deixis is often psychological distance

(rather than physical distance)

Physically close objects will tend to be treated by speakers as

psychologically close

Physical distant will generally be treated as psychologically

distant e.g. ‘that man over there’

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”

Temporal Deixis Time or temporal, deixis concerns 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

Time adverbs can be relative to the time when an utterance is made ( "encoding time", or ET) or when the utterance is heard ("decoding time", or DT) e.g

It is raining now,

CONT… Examples

Pure English temporal deictics

now – (proximal form)designates a time period

overlapping with the time of speaking

then – (distal form) it means ‘not now’, and can point

either into the future or the past.

a. November 1st 1963? I was in Scotland then.

b. Dinner at 8.30 on Saturday? Ok I’ll se you then.

Features of Temporal Deixis

1. Temporal Deictic Expressions

Yesterday, tomorrow, today, tonight, next week, last week,

this week.

- depend upon their interpretation on knowing the

relevant utterance time. E.g

- Back in hour

- Free bar tomorrow

2. Psychological Basis of Temporal Deixis

Similar to spatial deixis

We treat temporal event as objects that move towards

us (into view) or away from us (out of view) e.g

the coming week, the approaching week

In days gone by, the past week

For near or immediate future we use“this” e.g “this

weekend”, “this Thursday”

3. Verb tense - Temporal deictic

In English there are two basic forms-

- present tense – proximal form

- past tense – distal form

E.g I live here now.

I lived there then.

Examples of Distal form

I could swim (when I was a child).

I could be in Hawaii (if I had a lot of money).

CONT… Distal form in temporal deixis also used to

communicate not only distance from current time but

also distance from current reality and fact.

It also communicate the negative

E.g

If I had a yacht,…..

If I was rich,….

Deixis and Grammar Basic distinction for person, spatial, and temporal can be

made in structural distinction in grammar-

direct(reporting) / indirect speech (reported) e.g

Direct : Are you planning to be here this

evening?

Indirect : I asked her if she was planning to be

there that evening

Context shift – proximal form distal form

1st sentnc 2nd sentnc

(near speaker) (away frm speaker)