Deictics
Deictics are very important to understand. we will elaborate the Deictics and its different types here. A deictic is a word or phrase like me or here , which cannot be fully understood without further contextual information; in these examples are the identity of the speaker and their location, respectively. The phenomenon is called deixis . Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed, but their denotative meaning varies depending on time or place. Words or phrases that require contextual information to convey any meaning, such as pronouns, are deictic. Deictics definition
Deixis is closely related to anaphora and cohesion .
The origin of the term is classical Greek: δεῖξις (‘exhibition, demonstration, or reference’).
They are deictic:
- of person: me, my, his ;
- of place: here, there, this, that one ;
- of time: now, then, soon ;
- of quantity: so much (‘that quantity’);
- so: like this (‘that mode’).
The deictic adjective qualifies what is linked to deixis : the signaling to a linguistic expression, a time, a site or a person that is carried out using a grammatical element. This grammatical element is also called deictic that allows to specify deixis.
Deictics, therefore, are terms whose meaning depends on context , since it can only be known in terms of the speaker. Deixis always develops from a reference point that depends on who expresses it.
The interpretation of the deictics is related to the communicative situation . The speaker must show in some way what they refer to so that the interlocutor is in a position to contextualize their content .
In that sense, it must be taken into account, in addition, that deixis can be of two types according to their area of marking. Thus, we come across the one that is outside the text, which comes to establish what is a reference to someone’s spatial, temporal or personal context, and that which is within the text. In this case it refers to specific aspects of that mentioned text. Deictics definition
Take as an example the phrase “We went there yesterday . ” The expression presents three deictics: “we” , “there” and “yesterday” . To understand the content, we must first know who “we” refers to . We also have to know where it is “there” and even if the expression appears in a writing or we hear it in a recording, it is essential to find out when “yesterday” was . On the other hand, other expressions without deictics present the information in such a way that no more references are needed to make its meaning understandable:“Juan Perez, Martin Lopez and Maria Gonzalez went to the Museum of Natural Sciences of San Jacinto on January 3, 2015″ .
Types of Deictics
Person Deictics:
-Those candies are yours.
-That made the life of that person.
-For such circumstances there will be no party.
Deictics of time:
He opened the door, turned and then said goodbye without further ado.
– Then I go looking for you, about three o’clock.
– Yesterday, April 23 was book
day – Tomorrow day 16 I have an appointment with the doctor.
-He told me that by Monday I had everything ready
Deictics of space or place:
– There where the children play there was an accident recently.
-They are building a new supermarket and next door they will open some offices.
-Look at the branches of that tree, above and you will see a nest.
-Put the books on the floor, under that chair there (there is also a space deictic).
