Deixis

Deixis (Seminar Semantics and Pragmatics)

Andrew McIntyre
1 Some basic deictic notions
Deixis = the phenomenon whereby the reference of certain expressions cannot be determined
without knowing to the extralinguistic context of the utterance (who uttered it where and when):
(1) I will meet you here this afternoon at 3.

The deictic centre = reference point of the text or utterance, by default the speaker/here/now.
Gestural deixis: Reference determined by non-linguistic gesture (pointing, eye contact...):
(2) a. YOU are to work with HER.
(3) Put this candle HERE and that one THERE.
(4) [looking at map]: Neuchtel is HERE, not HERE.
(5) [handing sb. sth.]: Here you are. / Here it is.
(6) Its THIS long/loud.
(7) Horowitz played the passage THIS way.
[demonstrates on piano/plays recording]
(8) When I say now start running. ... NOW! [time of saying now is temporal pointing]
Remoteness: Modern Standard English, unlike other languages, has two-place spatial &
temporal deixis; other languages have more elaborate systems.
Proximal:
near reference point: here, now
Distal:
removed from reference point: there, then

Other languages (e.g. some English dialects) have a three-place deictic system:
(9) here (near speaker), there (near hearer), yonder (near neither speaker nor hearer).

There are various ways of expressing degrees of remoteness more exactly than the two-place
system of English allows:
(10) right here, right then, this very book, way over there

The size of the proximal area is relative and depends on the context:
(11) Cuthbert is here. [in this room? in this town? in this country?...]
(12) My arm hurts here. [at doctors]

2 Types of deixis
Spatial deixis:
Determiners: this/that
Verbs specifying motion toward/away from speaker: come/go
Adverbs (intransitive prepositions): here/there; hither/hence, thither/thence

Temporal deixis:
Adverbs/PPs: now/then; this year/that year; at this/that point; yesterday; two days ago
Tense: present tense (proximal) vs. past/future tense (distal)

Personal deixis:
First person (Speaker: I, we)
Second person (hearer: you)

A. Many linguists (e.g. Huang 2007:133ff) see gestural uses of 3rd person pronouns (like her in (2))
as deictic, and the anaphoric use of 3rd person pronouns (like that in the sentence below) as nondeictic. Try to explain why anaphoric pronouns are not deictic.
I saw a woman sitting at the next table. She was reading a newspaper.
B. The distal forms there, then are more often anaphoric than are the proximal forms here, now.
For a related reason, non-anaphoric there is more likely to be gestural than here is. Explain
these facts.
C. First person plural pronouns can be inclusive or exclusive. These have distinct forms in some
languages but are mostly formally identical in English. Explain this with reference to the
following examples.
1. [cult member to journalist:] We believe that the Great Plastic Cow guides human destiny.
2. [Nine Inch Nails song:] You and me, were in this together now.
3. a. Let us go home. (ambiguous)
b. Lets go home.
c. *Lets take you home.

Social deixis: The T/V distinction: French tu/vous, German du/Sie, Middle English thou/ye);
metaphorical proximity/distance on a social hierarchy (age, power, class) or in terms of
familiarity/solidarity. Deictic because choice of forms depends on speaker.
(13) All that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper; for I thou thee, thou traitor.
[Said at Sir Walter Raleighs trial, 1603]

D. Can you think of ways of expressing something like the T/V distinction in Modern English?

Textual deixis: metaphoric deixis in texts, often borrowing spatial/temporal deictic words:
(14) [in book:] I will shortly begin my defense of the Flat Earth Hypothesis. At this point it should
be noted that my argumentation will be hard to follow unless we recall some points made in
chapter 3. I will therefore briefly summarise that chapter here. There I argued that
(15) Listen to this: John said to Bob Go fly a kite. He didnt like that.
(16) Look to the left, then to the right, then cross the road in that order.
(17) hereby, therefore (=because of that), the above, the former/latter; par la prsente,

3 Shifting deictic centre

Shifting deictic centre (=deictic projection):
(18) [from a textbook:] Do exercise seven now!
(19) His opponent hit the ball into the net. Now he had won the tournament.

Shifting deictic centre as source of ambiguity:

(20) [on the phone]: Theres a hospital at the opposite end of town.
(21) [letter from London to Sydney]: We will try to visit you this winter?

The possibility of deictic shift seems to depend partly on the lexical items in question. Come is
usable (a) of motion to speaker or hearer (at either utterance time or arrival time), or (b) of
motion to a place normally occupied by speaker or hearer, whether or not they are there at
utterance or arrival time (Huang 2007:161):
(22) Should they come to your office now or stay here?
(23) Stuart will come to our flat tomorrow, but neither of us will be there.
(24) *Stuart will come to our former flat tomorrow, but neither of us will be there.

Deixis
E. Are go and here as flexible as come?
F. The uses of here below (not accepted by all speakers) might appear to involve a shifting centre
of deixis, but they can also be seen as non-deictic. Why?
1. [said in Paris:] He will arrive at Sydney Airport soon. %Here he will hold a press conference.
2. In a few minutes we will reach Central Station. %The train terminates here.

4 References
Apart from the chapters on deixis in the textbooks by Huang, Grundy, Cruse, Levinson (see
courseplan for references), consult also:
Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge.
Ch. 17.

G. Can you think of contexts where the following would be possible (without substance abuse).
1. Im not here now.
2. Thats me there.
3. Unfortunately, I died recently.
H. Explain the following data (with Tuesday the 9th of January as utterance time):
1. a. *this Tuesday / *this Monday / *this Wednesday
b. this Friday
2. a. this week/month/year/semester/academic year b. *this day c. *this fortnight
3. a. *This Christmas we stayed at home.
b. %This Sunday we went to the park.
I. Identify a deictic and a non-deictic reading of the underlined expressions. You may have to
think of special contexts to do this.
1. Theres the school. The university is opposite.
2. Wurstbrot H. Smiths book argues for the Flat Earth Hypothesis. This is discussed in chapter 3.
3. I met this weird person at a party yesterday.
4. Lets take the other road.
5. An upright piano is in the middle of the room. The cat is behind the piano.
6. When did they arrive and when did they go away and when did they return?
7. Cynthia is upstairs.
8. The president is going to hold a press conference today.
9. Theres a computer in the main office. This computer is not much good.
10. When you write long texts, you should e-mail the files to yourself in case the computer crashes.
11. Gwendoline is to the left of Ethel on the photo.
12. The police found him in a local disco.
J. Complete the following equations. What is the generalisation covering all of them?
1. this book + that book = [ ] books
[] = these or those?
2. me + you = [ ]
3. me + them = [ ]
4. you + them = [ ]
K. Work out the difference between bring and take in the examples below.
1. Can you {take/*bring} me there?
2. {Take/*Bring} this rubbish away, please!
3. Who {brought/*took} him here?
L. Can you reconcile the following sentences with the answer to the last question?
1. I will {bring/take} it to you.
2. I will {bring/take} it to them.
3. You should {bring/*take} it to me.
4. You should {bring/take} it to her.
5. She should {bring/??take} it to you.
6. He should {bring/take} it to her.