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Pragmatics Deixis And Conversa - Papers

Pragmatics Deixis And Conversa


1.1 The concept of deictic centre
Deixis deals with the words and expressions whose reference relies entirely on the circumstances of the utterance. For that reason these special expressions and their meaning in discourse can only be understood in light of these circumstances. The term deictic centre underlines that the deictic term has to relate to the situation exactly at the point where the utterance is made or the text is written. One could even say that the deictic centre is the unmarked “anchorage point” from which the utterance is made. To decode the meaning of a sentence we use a “navigation system”.
In our day-to-day conversational exchanges, the speaker does not consciously use ...

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person tells a story and forgets to give the essential information a deictic term refers to, we will grow aware of the weakness the deictic system features. Or if the fax machine just receives the second page of a letter, beginning with "Then he was quite embarrassed about it " - the adressee will never be able to guess what "then", "he" and "it" stands for. Similar gaps arise if we read about an utterance made in the past and lack information about the references. Although the adressee at that time could easily have understood the sense, we may not be capable of getting the original meaning. Even if we knew the context in detail, this might not be sufficient to understand discourse, for example if a special gesture is made when pointing at a building while saying: "I lived there two years ago."
1.2 Linguistic categories
The Greek origin of the term deixis meaning pointing via language already hints at its function. According to Yule (1996:9), "Deixis is clearly a form of ...

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forms are sometimes quite tricky in their use. Children often have problems using personal pronouns. The three pronouns from first to third person I, you and he, she, it are in many languages elaborated with markers of relative social status (social deixis). Expressions indicating a higher social status are called honorifics. In German or French, there is a special social aspect about a familiar form of you (Du/tu) and an unfamiliar one (Sie/Vous). The use of either one form gives us information about the speakers view of his relationship to the addressee. Third person terms are usually more distant terms. Today they sometimes may serve ironic purposes (" Should I clean the dishes for ...

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Pragmatics Deixis And Conversa. (2005, April 27). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Pragmatics-Deixis-And-Conversa/25992
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 4/27/2005 05:48:18 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 3318
Pages: 13

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