7.2 Deixis and reference

　 Deixis, a word originally from Greek, means ‘pointing’ via language. An expression used by a speaker/writer to identify something is called deictic expression (or indexical). When you ask “What's this?” and “What's that?” you are using deictic expressions this or that to indicate something in the immediate context. The sentence below contains a number of deictic expressions.

　　(1) Do you think he can leave this here now?

　 Out of context, we cannot understand the sentence, because we don't know who you and he refer to respectively, and what, where and when something is to be left. According to referential content, deixis can be put into person deixis, place deixis, time deixis and discourse deixis.

　 Person deixis in English comprises personal pronouns. The simplicity of these pronouns often disguises the complexity of their use. Grammatically, the basic division of first person, second person, and third person is easy to understand. Pragmatically, however, their reference may not be as easy to see. We, for example, is the first person plural form. In speech, it may refer to the speaker and his/her peer in one context and to the speaker and the hearer in another.

　　(2) (Students to teacher) Shall we go now?
　　(3) (Student A to student B) Shall we go now?

This exclusive and inclusive use of we is also true with the use of us. Let us may be inclusive or exclusive, while let's is inclusive. Consider (4) and (5):

　　(4) (Two passengers checking in at an airport counter. One of them speaks to the clerk.) Please let us have two window seats.
　　(5) (Two passengers sitting in the airport lounge. One speaks to the other) Let's (or let us) get on board now.

In some languages, the choice of person deixis is strictly linked with social status. Expressions which indicate higher status are termed honorifics. A well-known example of social contrast encoded in person deixis is the tu (familiar) and vous (non-familiar) distinction in French, both of which refer to the addressee. Similar distinctions are found in many other languages.

　 Place deixis specifies the locations relative to the speech event. Here and there are two pure place deictic words in contemporary English. The concept of distance is implied in them as well as in other words which have spatial deictic sense. Bring that here and Take this there are two expressions which involve the concept of distance. This and here (called proximal terms) are used when something is close to the speaker; that and there (called distal terms) are used when something is away from the speaker. Some verbs of motions, come and go, for example, indicate movement toward or away from the speaker. This spatial deictic sense of motion verbs can be mentally fossilized. At school, a student inviting his classmate to his birthday party to be held at home may say “Will you come to my birthday party this Saturday evening?” The concept of distance in place deixis is also correlated to tense of verbs. This can be shown by (6) and (7).

　　(6) I was there.
　　(7) *I am there.

Although (7) is grammatically possible, it is pragmatically not acceptable.

　 Time deixis in English refers to words and phrases like now, then, today, yesterday, tomorrow, next week, last year, in three days, etc. Now is a proximal term, as it indicates the time of speaking and hearing. Then is a distal expression which applies to both past and future time relative to the time of speaking, as shown by (8) and (9).

　　(8) You called at 9:00 last night? I was out then.
　　(9) --- The party starts at 6:00 Friday evening?
　　　　--- Okay, I'll see you then.

The temporal expressions containing last and next are also distal. The actual time referred to must be worked out in relation to the time of the utterance. If “Last summer I visited Italy” is uttered in autumn or winter, the time is within the same year. If uttered in spring or summer, it refers to the summer of the previous year.

　 Discourse (or text) deixis is an expression that has its reference within the discourse or text. Examples are in the previous section, in the next chapter, in the rest of this paper, in conclusion, etc. Demonstratives this and that are often discourse deixis. This can be used to refer to a forthcoming portion of the discourse, as in (10), and that to a preceding portion, as in (11):

　　(10) What he really means is this ...
　　(11) That was the most difficult situation we have ever faced.

　 The four types of deixis are used to identify something in the immediate physical context or within the discourse or text. (Some writers use the term co-text or linguistic context). The meaning of deixis is reference in context or co-text. In discourse or text, deixis is used to keep track of who or what is being talked about more than once. After the initial introduction of some entity (usually the indefinite article is used), the speaker/writer will use deixis (or definite noun phrase) to maintain reference, as in (12).

　　(12) In the picture, a boy and a girl are planting a tree. She is holding it, and he is shoveling earth around it.

She, he, it refer to already introduced referents, a girl, a boy, a tree. The reference of a deixis to a preceding expression is technically termed anaphoric reference. The deixis that replaces the initial expression is called anaphora, and the initial expression called antecedent. The reversal of the antecedent-anaphor pattern is known as cataphora, which is less common. (13) is an example of cataphoric reference.

　　(13) I could hardly believe it. The man wriggled his pointing finger through the brick.

Because there is no direct formal relation between deixis and its antecedent, understanding of anaphoric and cataphoric reference necessarily depends on inference