Dr. Musa Alamin Hamouda Saeed1
Assistant professor of English language and Literature at faculty of Education, ElDaein University, Sudan.
Email: musaalamin81@gmail.com
HNSJ, 2023, 4(11); https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj4118
Published at 01/11/2023 Accepted at 15/10/2023
Abstract
The emphasis of this study is centered on the pragmatic role mainly Deixis in conveying meaning. There are some very common words in our language that can’t be interpreted at all if we don’t know the context, especially the physical context of the speaker. These are words such as here and there, this or that , now and then , yesterday, today ,tomorrow, as well as pronouns such as you , me, she , him , it , them. The findings of this work justified the fact that, Deixis is very important in our expression of meaning as there are bits of language that we can only understand in terms of the speaker’s intended meaning. The study restated that every lexical word has meaning, but its social application has implication on our day to day communication. The study has undertaken the qualitative-analytical method.
Looking at this problem, the author tries to find out a good way to help the readers in understanding the intended meaning of a text from the given context. The author realizes that many students and English learners find some confusion in getting meanings from the texts. Understanding and knowledge of Deixis can help the readers to solve that problem. By knowing deixis, the readers will be easier to get the target meaning which contains in a sentence or text from the context involved between speaker and listeners/readers.
Furthermore, the author argues that a good step to identify deixis is by analyzing and encoding them in regard to given the context. Here, the writer made an analysis in the diexis to find out what types of Deixis is dominantly being used. This study gave us an understanding about deixis and their usages. ’Deixis concerns the ways in which languages encode or grammaticalize features of the context of utterance or speech event, and thus also concerns ways in which the interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis of that context of utterance’’, Levinson (1983).
Meaning:
Every definition still remains an attempt and inadequate as there is always a vacuum to be filled. Nevertheless, Palmer (1981) defines meaning as a concept or ideas which can be transferred from the mind of the speaker to the mind of the bearer by embodying them as it were in the forms of language or another. Critics dismissed the above coupled with the claim that it is too vague or too general to support the weight needed by its role as the cornerstone in the traditional conceptualist theory of meaning.
There are various ways to study the meaning of words. Both lexicog-raphers and semanticists have done extensive work in the area of lexi-cal semantics. Lexicographers have developed a methodology for deter-mining the meaning of words for purposes of creating dictionaries. Semanticists have developed various theories designed to study the
meaning of words.
According to Yule (2006)We can go further and make a broad distinction between conceptual meaning and associative meaning. Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal us e of a word. It is the type of meaning that dictionaries are designed to describe.
Pragmatics:
According to George Yule (2010) ‘’pragmatics is the study of “invisible” meaning, or how we recognize what is mean t even when it isn’t actually said or written. In order for that to happen, speakers (or writers) must be able to depend on a lot of shared assumptions and expectations when they try to communicate’’.
“Pragmatics is of the relations between language and context that are basic to an account of language understanding”, Levinson (1983:21).
Deixis:
There are many kind of deixis which are used in literature for example novel, poem, drama and speech. There are many word that can be found in our utterance that cannot be interpreted if we do not know about the context. Especially the physical context of the speaker.
According to George Yule (2006), there are some very common words in our language that can’t be interpreted at all if we don’t know the context, especially the physical context of the speaker. These are words such as here and there, this or that, now and then, yesterday, today or tomorrow, as well as pronouns such as you, me, she, him, it, them. Some sentences of English are virtually impossible to understand if we don’t know who is speaking, about whom, where and when.
This is the man they have been looking for all yesterday.
You’ll have to bring it back tomorrow because she isn’t here today.
Out of context , the two sentences above are really vague . They contain a large number of expressions ( this , the man ,they, yesterday, you , it ,tomorrow, she, here , today ) that rely on knowledge of the immediate physical context for their interpretation (i.e. that the delivery driver will have to return on February 15 to 660 College Drive with the long box labeled “flowers, handle with care” addressed to Lisa Landry) .
The facts of deixis should act as a constant reminder to theoretical linguists of the simple but immensely important fact that natural languages are primarily designed, so to speak, for use in face-to-face interaction, and thus there are limits to the extent to which they can be analysed without taking this into account (Lyons, 1977a: 589ft).
Expressions such as tomorrow and here are obvious examples of bits of language that we can only understand in terms of the speaker’s intended meaning. The y are technic ally known as deictic (/daɪktɪk/) expressions,
from the Greek word deixis , which means “pointing” via language.
According to Levinson (1983:54) “deixis concerns the ways in which language encode or grammaticalize features of the context of utterance or speech event, and thus also concerns ways in which interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis of the context of utterance”.
Types of Deixis:
Deixis has a crucial role in studying pragmatics. It helps people to interpret the meaning of a certain sentence based on its context. Levinson (1983:68-94) defining the deixis into five types, they are: person deixis, place deixis, time deixis, social deixis and discourse Deixis.
Meanwhile Yule(2006) sated that, “We use deixis to point to things (it , this , these boxes ) and people (him , them, those idiots ), sometimes called person deixis. Words and phrases used to point to a location ( here , there, near that ) are examples of spatial deixis , and those used to point to a time( now , then , last week) are exam ples of temp oral deixis. This paper will concentrate on referential/person, Spatial and temporal diexis.
Referential /Person Deixis:
According to (Cruse, 2000: 321 ) that ,”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 third person”.
As speakers switch, so the deictic centre, on which the rest of the deictic system hangs, is itself abruptly moved from participant to participant. person deixis is reflected directly in the grammatical categories of person, it may be argued that we need to develop an independent pragmatic framework of possible participant-roles, so that we can then see how, and to what extent, these roles are grammaticalized in different languages, (Lenison 1983:68).
The excerpt below, taken from a conversation between two people discussing real estate listings, contains a number of instances of exophoric reference, all highlighted in boldface:
- Speaker A: I’m hungry. Ooh look at that . Six bedrooms. Jesus. It’s quite cheap for six bedrooms isn’t it seventy thou. Not that we could afford it anyway. Is that the one you were on about?
Speaker B: Don’t know.
- I and you must join this conversation.
The personal pronouns I, we, and you are each exophoric because they refer to the individuals engaged in the conversation – individuals who will only be known by those people directly engaged in the conversation. The pronoun I refers to the speaker, we to both the speaker and the person being addressed, and you to the addressee. The pronoun that is also exophoric because this pronoun refers to a particular description in a written text that the two speakers are reading together. This use of that is also spatial, a point that will be discussed in greater detail in the next section. ‘It should be noted that the two basic participant roles, speaker and addressee, are not the only ones that can become involved in grammatical distinctions(Lenison 1983:67).
Spatial / Place Deixis:
According to Levinson (1983:79 in Lyons) place or space deixis concerns the specification of locations relative to anchorage in the speech event. In addition to having referring capabilities, this and that , along with their plural counterparts these and those, can be used to situate the speaker/writer spatially with respect to what these expressions are refer-ring to. This kind of Deixis , known as spatial or space deixis, is also associated with the adverbs here and there and some uses of prepositions such as in or on (e.g. in the room , on the roof).
According to Cruse (2000:320) “spatial or place deixis manifests itself principally in the form of locative adverbs such as ‘here’ and ‘there’ and
demonstratives or determiners such as “this” and “that”. The adverbs here and there as well as the demonstratives this /that and these/those have proximal and distal interpretations. Proximal uses of these constructions locate something close to the speaker. In the example below, this locates the computer relatively close to the speaker:
- Spent a lot of time on this computer this weekend. Look at the screen. It says “Non system disk or disk error.” Oh. I need to change this computer.
- The airport is fifteen kilometers from my house. That is too far for me to take you home. (That refers to the Airport).
- I plan to have a vacation to Oman after finishing my study. Probably, I’ll be there on February.
(There refers to Oman)
- I don’t like this pen. I would prefer that one.
(This or that refers to specific pens known to both speaker and listener)
In the next example, the two instances of these locate the books and pens close to the speaker:
- You know, you can take few of these books, and, these books and pens here, in the evening, whenever you want to read and write there, you can do that.
Distal uses of demonstratives locate referents farther away from the speaker. In the example below, the use of that locates the individual far-ther away from the speakers than this would:
- That girl’s reading pretty loud
- This girl’s reading pretty loud
(That and this refers to the same girl)
In the exchange below, Speaker (teacher) uses these to refer to chairs close to her, while Speaker (student) uses those in reference to chairs that are farther away.
- Teachers : Well, these old chairs have shot up in price so much of the last year or two
- Student : Yes, those few chairs were a pound.
(these and those refer to chairs)
In all of the examples thus far, the demonstratives (this, that, these and those) have been used to point to specific items that are either close to or more distant from the speaker. However, as Huddleston and Pullum (2002: 1505) note, physical distance from the speaker is not always a consideration in the choice of one demonstrative over the other; moreover, they continue, the demonstratives can also refer “to properties of such objects or to actions taking place or other abstract features of the situation of utterance.”
Other kinds of spatial adverbials locate items in various positions rela-tive to the speaker. In the example below, the speaker is looking for something that is missing and cannot determine whether it is close to him/her (here – farther away – there – upstairs-or somewhere else altogether):
- Is it here, or is it there ? I think it’s I’ve got it upstairs.
- I left my car keys somewhere there. Oh, I remember they are here in my pockets.
Now, locations can be specified relative to other objects or fixed reference points. Alternatively, they can be deictically specified relative to the location of participants at the time of speaking.
- The station is two hundred yards from the cathedral,
- Kabul lies at latitude 34 degrees, longitude 70 degrees.
- It’s two hundred yards away
The gestural usage is pragmatically given space, proximal to speaker’s location, that includes the point or location gesturally indicated’.
Some uses of deictics require for their interpretation continuous monitoring of relevant aspects of the speech situation: in the clearest cases, the hearer has to be able to see the speaker and their gestures (Cruse,2000:324).
- Put one over there and the other one here.
- This is the finger that hurts, not that one.
- Place it here.
Temporal /Time Deixis:
Through time and used of English and other languages, there are some spatial prepositions, such as in and on used to develop temporal meanings over time, a reflection of the general trend for notions of space to develop into notions of time. According to Cruse (2000:321) “temporal deixis functions to locate points or intervals on the time axis, using the moments of utterance as a reference point” Thus, prepositions such as in , on , at , and by in the phrases in the morning , on time , at noon, and by the evening can now be markers of temporal, or time, deixis: the use of language to anchor the speaker/writer in time.
According to Charles F. Meyer (2009)that,’’ Temporal deixis in English is marked linguistically by both temporal adverbials (e.g. now, then yesterday , tomorrow , in the morning) and tense markers (present and past) on verbs.
There are a number of aspects of ‘pure’ time deixis, where there is no direct interaction with non-deictic methods of time reckoning.
- Bring the book now!
- I am now working on my paper.
- 1 was just a kid then.
For many English speakers , Now contrasts with then, and indeed then can be glossed as ‘not now’ to allow for its use in both past and future.
However, English has no future tense – that is, an inflection that is placed on a verb to mark an event taking place in the future. Instead, English uses the modal verbs shall or will –
- I shall speak to him on his return.
- The woman will be employed by a charity or public body and will be resi-dent with the people being cared for.
the phrasal modal be going to:
- People are going to start getting anxious now aren’t they.
- I am going to leave this job.
Finally, we should mention that time deixis is relevant to various other deictic elements in a language. Thus greetings are usually time-restricted, so that can only be used in the morning, in the evening and so on:
- Good morning.
- Good night.
Conclusion:
This article will conclude that, a good step to identify deixis is by analyzing and encoding them in regard to given the context. Deixis with all its types place, time and person helps people to interpret the meaning of a certain sentence based on its context involved .The findings of this work justified the fact that, Deixis is very important in our expression of meaning as there are bits of language that we can only understand in terms of the speaker’s intended meaning. The study restated that every lexical word has meaning, but its social application has implication on our day to day communication. The specification of locations relative to background points in the speech event. This will help in specifying or referring to objects – by describing or naming them on the one hand, and by locating them on the other. The communication medium will be rather effective and message will be conveyed successfully.
References
- Charles F. Meyer 2009. Introducing English Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
- Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
- D. Alan Cruse(2000). An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford University .
- Fauziah, Aulia. 2015. An Analysis of Deixis in “A Thousand Words” Movie Script by Steve Koren. Skripsi. English Education Department, Teacher Training and Tarbiyah Faculty, State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Tulungagung.
- Geoffrey N. Leech (1983)Principles of Pragmatics. Longman Group Limited .
- Levinson,S. (1983) Pragmatics . Cambridge University Press.
- Lyons, John. 1981. Language and Linguistics. USA: Cambridge University Press.
- The Epsiteme Journal of Linguisics and Literature (2014).Volume 1-5
- Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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