Pragmatics Flashcards
Deixis
the phenomenon whereby the reference of certain expressions is dependent on the extralinguistic context of the utterance (who said it when and where).
deictic center
reference point of the text or utterance, by default the speaker/here/now
remoteness
Modern Standard English has two-place spatial & temporal deixis:
proximal: near reference point: here, now
distal: removed from reference point: there, then
spatial deixis
expressions interpreted w.r.t. location of speaker/hearer
- determiners: this/that
- verbs specifying motion toward/away from deictic centre: come/go
- Adverbs (intransitive prepositions): here/there; hither/hence, thither/thence
temporal deixis
expressions interpreted w.r.t. time of speaking:
- Adverbs/PPs: now/then; this year/that year; at this/that point; yesterday; two days ago
- Tense: present tense (proximal) vs. past/future tense (distal)
personal deixis
First Person (Speaker: I, we)
Second person (hearer: you)
3rd person pronouns (she, it, they) are deictic only sometimes.
extralinguistic
referring to things outside of the utterance, like time, place, etc.
intralinguistic
referring to expressions within the utterance. (referring to things that have been said before)
shifting deictic center
= deictic projection. Speakers imagine they are in another place/time, so expressions referring to deictic center don’t refer to place/time of speech.
e.g. from a textbook: “do exercise seven now!”
- can be a source of ambiguity (e.g. Letter from London to Sydney: “We will try to visit you this winter.”
presupposition
- background assumptions held by the speaker and hearer when a sentence is uttered.
- remain true even if the sentence is negated
- triggered by particular words
e.g. They realised Ann was right; They did not realise that Ann was right
