Deixis1.Timedeixis2.PersondeixisDeictic

usagesNon-deicticusagesPre-emptiveness

of

Deictic

WordsFactorsInfluencingChoicesbetweenDeicticandNon-deicticUsages

FirstpersondeixisSecondpersondeixis

ThirdpersondeixisBy陳靜宜柳晨曦楊沁玉余昕鈺袁邑婷張金張秦張玉梅張揚(yáng)紅Time

Deixis

Time

expressions

can

be

used

deicticly,

when

the

speaker

uses

his

own

time

of

speaking

as

the

reference

time,

or

non—deicticly

when

the

fixed

time

of

an

important

event

is

used

as

the

reference

point

of

time.

Deictic

Usages

The

following

is

an

illustration

of

the

time

deixis

in

deictic

uses,

that

is,

the

time

of

speaking

is

used

as

the

reference

point:

A.Time

adverbialsB.Deictic

modifier

+

Non-deictic

name

(measure

word)C.Tense

of

verbs

(a

grammatical

category)A.Time

adverbials

now

—

the

time

point

of

speaking

today

yesterday

—

the

day

before

that

of

speaking

tomorrow—

the

day

after

that

of

speaking

(two

days)ago

—

(two

days)

before

the

time

of

speaking

Examples:

now,

then,

today,

yesterday,

tomorrow,

soon,

recently,

two

days

ago,

in

three

minutes,

from

now

on,

right

away

BACKExamples:

this/that

morning/afternoon/week/month/year

next/last

Monday/January/February/decade/century

B.Deictic

modifier

+

Non-deictic

name

(measure

word)子頁(yè)３ABC主頁(yè)MAINC.Tense

of

verbs

(a

grammatical

category)ABCMAINExamples:

Mary

is

reading

on

the

lakeside.

(Happening

at

the

time

of

speaking)I

wrote

a

letter

to

him.

(Happening

before

the

time

of

speaking)

I’m

going

to

see

the

movie.

(Happening

after

the

time

of

speaking)

BACKC.Tense

of

verbs

(a

grammatical

category)ABCMAINAsarule,indeicticuseoftense,thetimeofspeakingisusedasthedeicticcenter.So,presenttenseisusedfortheeventhappeningat/duringthetimeofspeaking,pasttensefortheeventhappeningbeforethetimeofspeaking.However,thisruleissometimesviolatedinordertoachievepragmaticeffect.Thefollowingaretwotypicalexamplesofdeicticprojectionorfunctionalvariationoftenses.BACKC.Tense

of

verbs

(a

grammatical

category)ABCMAIN(a)HistoricalPresent:usingpresenttensetorefertopastevents,bringingthehistoricaleventclosertotheaddresseeandvividtolife.(b)SubjunctiveMood:Usepasttensetorefertotheeventsthatareimpossibletoberealizedorfarawayfromthereality.Examples:

IfIwereyou,I…

HadIarrivedalittleearlierattheairport…BACKNon-Deictic

Usages

Whenthereferencepointoftimedeixisisafixedtimeoriginratherthanthetimeofspeaking,itisusednon-deicticly.Calendricusagesareexamplesofnon-deicticusages.Thefollowingaresomeexamplesofnon-deictictimeexpressions:Sept.15th,2023—Calendricuse(Nomatterbywhomitissaid,itreferstothesameyear)onThursday—Itmightrefertothesametimeperiodwhenspokenbydifferentspeakersatdifferentpointsoftimeofaweek;post-war(construction)—aftertheWorldWarII;Pre-emptiveness

of

Deictic

Words

(指示語(yǔ)旳先用性)

1.Levinsonputsforwardthisviewpointin1983.2.Levinson

points

out,

the

deictic

terms

yesterday,

today

and

tomorrow

pre-empt

the

calendrical

or

absolute(non-deictic)

expressions

(e.g.onThursday)when

referring

to

the

same

time

entities.Thatis,whenyesterday,

today

and

tomorrowcanbeusedthecalendricalexpressiononMonday,onTuesday…willnotbechosen.e.g.TodayisTuesday,one

would

not

usually

say(1)(2)(3)torespectivelyrefertothedaybefore,onoraftertheCT(codingtime—themomentofutterance):(1)HewenttothesupermarketonMonday.(yesterdayismorepreferredthanonMonday.)(2)HeisinthesupermarketonTuesday.(todayismorepreferredthanonTuesday.)(3)He’llgotothesupermarketonWednesday.(tomorrowismorepreferredthanonWednesday.)WhenutteredonTuesday,lastMondayrefersto“theMondayoflastweek”(Otherwise,yesterdayisused);nextWednesdayrefersto“theWednesdayofnextweek”(Otherwise,tomorrowisused);nextThursday,FridayorSaturdayisambiguous,whichmightrefertothe

Thursday,FridayorSaturdayofthesameweekorthenextweek.Similarly,whenutteredonFriday,lastMonday,TuesdayorWednesdayisambiguous,whichmightrefertotheMonday,TuesdayorWednesdayofthesameweekorthelastweek.Levinsonsaysthat“thispre-emptivenatureofpuredeicticwordsisageneraltendency:it…wouldbestrangetosayDoitat10:36insteadofDoitnow,whennowis10:36.”Levinsondoesnotdefinetheterm“puredeicticword”.Presumably,itreferstowordslikeI,you,now,today,yesterday,tomorrow,thereferenceofwhichentirelydependsonthespeechsituation.ButLevinsonnotesthathereseemstobeanexception,whichdoesnothavethepre-emptiveforcethoughitisapuredeicticword.OnecansayWuhaninsteadofhereifoneisinWuhan.FactorsInfluencingChoicesbetweenDeicticandNon-deicticUsages子頁(yè)３1.Whethertochoosedeicticornon-deicticexpressionsoftimedependslargelyonthedistancebetweenthecodingtimeandtheexpressedtime.Generallyspeaking,theshorterthedistance,themorepossiblethechoiceofdeicticterms,andviceversa.Forexample,ifthecodingtimeisThursday,and(1).theexpressedtimeisthenextday,thentomorrowismorepreferabletoonFriday;(2).theexpressedtimeistwodayslaterthanthecodingtime,thenthedayaftertomorrowandonSaturdaymaybeequallypreferred;(3).theexpressedtimeisthreedayslaterthanthecodingtime,thenthenon-deictictermonSundaywillbemorefrequentlychosen.2.Whethertochoosedeicticornon-deicticexpressionsoftimealsodependsonformalityofthespeech.Themoreformalthespeech,thegreaterthepossibilitytousethenon-deicticexpressionsoftime,andviceversa.PersonDeixisPersondeixisconcernstheencodingoftheroleofparticipantsinthespeecheventinwhichtheutteranceinquestionisdelivered:thecategoryfirstpersonisthegrammaticalizationofthespeaker’sreferencetohimself,secondpersonistheencodingofthespeaker’sreferencetooneormoreaddressees,andthirdpersontheencodingofthereferencetopersonsandentitieswhichareneitherspeakersnoraddresseesoftheutterance.Briefly,firstpersonisspeakerinclusion(+S)，secondpersonisaddresseeinclusion(+A),andthirdpersonisspeakerandaddresseeexclusion(-S,-A).Fromaboveanalysis,wecanseethirdpersonisquitedistinctfromfirstorsecondperson,inthatitdoesnotrefertoanyspecificparticipant-roleinthespeechevent.

Inmanylanguages,therearetwovariantsoffirstperson“plural”pronouns,correspondingto“we-inclusive-of-addressee”and“we-exclusive-of-addressee”.ThisdistinctioncanbeseeninChinesefirstpersonpluralvariants“我們”and“咱們”.Forexamples:

(a)你旳動(dòng)作太慢，我們先走了。(exclusiveoftheaddressee)

(b)動(dòng)作快點(diǎn)，不然我們/咱們又要遲到了。(inclusiveoftheaddressee)

TheChinesenortherndialect“咱們”isusuallyusedtoincludeboththespeakerandtheaddressee;“我們”,however,maybeusedtoincludeorexcludetheaddressee,dependingonthecontext.FirstPersonDeixisTheabovedistinctionisnotmanifestedinEnglishdirectly,butitisperhapsindirectly.Forexample,usinletus

mayormaynotbeaddressee-inclusive,asin(a

)and(b);usinthecontractionform

let’s,however,mustbeunderstoodasaddressee-inclusive,asin(c)—thatiswhy(d)isconsideredasunacceptable.(a)Letusdoittogether.(inclusiveoftheaddressee)

(b)Letusknowthetimeofyourarrival.

(exclusiveoftheaddressee)(c)Let’sgotothecinema.

(inclusiveoftheaddressee)(d)Let’sgotoseeyoutomorrow.(unacceptable)

InEnglish,we

istheonlyformofthefirstpersonpluralpronouninnominativecase,sowhetheritisaddressee-inclusiveorexclusivedependsmuchonthecontext.Thesameutterancemightbeinterpretedindifferentwaysindifferentcontexts:eg.Wehaven’treceivedfromJohnforalongtime.WewouldbeunderstoodasinclusiveoftheaddresseeincaseamotheristalkingwithherhusbandabouttheirsonwhosenameisJohn,exclusiveoftheaddresseeincaseamotheristalkingwithherfriendaboutherownson.

1stpersondeixiswithfunctionalvariation:(a)(Mothertochildren)咱們別鬧了，我?guī)銈兂鋈ネ妗?1stpersonshiftedtoexpresstheaddressee:to

showintimacy)(b)我們說(shuō)話得講良心。(1stpersonshiftedtoexpresstheaddressee:tomakethecriticismlessdirect)(c)(Doctortopatient)Howarewefeelingtoday?(''We''

usedtorefertotheaddressee:tobringthedistancecloser&makethepatientlessnervous).SecondPersonDeixisInmodernEnglish,thesecondpersonpronounhasonlyoneform—you,forboththesingularandplural.Youmightbeuseddeicticly,referringtooneormorespecificaddresseeswhoseidentificationreliesmuchonthecontextinwhichthedeixisoccurs,asin(a)itmightalsobeusednon-deicticly(“genericyou”)withageneralreference,whichdoesnotrelysomuchontheconcretecontextforitsinterpretation,asin(b).(a)You,you,you,cometotheteacher’soffice,please.(deictic,withspecificreference)(b)Youcannotcountyourchickensbeforetheyarehatched.(non-deictic,withageneralreference)However,inmanyotherlanguagesthereisadistinctionbetweentheinformalandformal(honorific)formsofthesecondpersondeixis.Oneexampleisthedistinctionbetween“你”and“您”inChinese.Theinformal“你”ispreferredwhenaddressingsomebodyequalorlowerinstatusorrank,oraddressingsomebodymoreimportantoninformaloccasion.However,onformaloccasion,especiallywhentheaddresseeissomebodyolderorsuperiorinstatus,themoreformalandhonorificform“您”isabetterchoice.Thisformal(honoric)/informaldistinctioncanalsobeseeninthesecondpersondeixisofsomeotherlanguageslikevous&tuinFrench(Thepluralformvousisusedasan

honorificsubstituteforthesingulartu),Sie&duinGerman,Lei&tuinItalian,vous&tuinSpanish,Ye&thouinarchaicEnglish.

Aspecialuseofthesecondpersondeixisistheuseofvocatives(呼語(yǔ)),whicharenounphrasesthatrefertotheaddressee.Vocativescanbefurtherdividedinto“calls”(or“summonses”)(呼喚語(yǔ))and“addresses”(稱呼語(yǔ))accordingtotheirrespectivegesturalandsymbolicuse.Thegestural“calls”or“summonses”arenounphrasesusedtoarousetheattentionoftheaddressee(s)towhatistobesaidbythespeaker.Sotheynaturallyoccurintheinitialpositionofanutteranceoraconversation,andfunctionasindependentspeechacts,suchas:

(a)Mary,thereisalongdistancecallforyou.(b)Heyyou,youjuststeppedonmyfoot!Thesymbolic“addresses”,bycontrast,arenounphrasesusedtokeeptheattentionorinterestoftheaddresseewhohasalreadybeenreadyfororinvolvedintheconversationwiththespeaker,sotheyoftenoccurinmiddleorfinalpositionofanutteranceasaparenthesis,asin:(c)Theproblemis,Sir,wehavenomoreroomforyou..(d)WhatIwanttosayis,mychild,mumwillalwaysbesupportingyouItseemsthatalladdressescanbeusedassummonses,butnotallsummonsescanbeusedasaddresses.Take(b)and(c)asexamples,Sircanreplace''Heyyou

''tosay''Sir,youjuststeppedonmyfoot”whereas

''heyyou

''cannotreplace''Sir

''tosay“Theproblemis,heyyou,wehavenomoreroomforyou.”ThirdPersonDeixisItisgenerallyunderstoodthatthirdpersonisdistinctfromfirstorsecondpersoninthatitdoesnotrefertoanyspecificparticipant-roleinvolvedinthespeechevent,orinBurling’swords,itis“speakerandaddresseeexclusion(-S,-A)”.Butinspecificcontexts,thirdpersondeixiscanalsoencodethereferencetopersonandentitywhichiseitherthespeakeroraddresseeoftheutterance.Thiscontextualreferenceandfunctionofthethirdpersondeixisistheconcernofpragmatics.Insomecommunicationsituations,thethirdpersondeixis,whichisanominalphrase,mightbeemployedtorefertothe

speakerhimself/herselfortheaddressee,forexample:

Mothertoherlittleson:“Comehere,Bill,tellMummy

whatmademybabycry.”Inthesetence,thethirdpersondeicticsMummyandmybaby,insubstitutionforthefirstperson

me

andthesecondpersonyou,refertothespeakerandaddresseerespectively.Suchuseofthirdperso