Deictic elements throughout the languages of the world - A comparison

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Local deixis
2.1. Demonstratives and local adverbs
2.1.1. Two term systems
2.1.2. Three term systems: person oriented vs. distance oriented systems
2.1.3. Four and five term systems
2.1.4. Systems with more than five terms and systems with more than one dimension of contrast
2.2. Deictic verbs
2.3. Non-deictic strategies of locating objects in space
2.4. Extensions of spatial deixis

3. Person deixis

4. Social deixis

5. Summary

6. Notes

7. Bibliography

1. Introduction

(1) “I will see you next week right here !”

If we wanted to join this meeting we would need to know four different pieces of information from the extralinguistic context: Who are the speaker and the addressee? When and where did the utterance take place?

The tokens “I”, “you”, “next week” and “here” are deictic expressions. According to Charles J. Fillmore (FILLMORE 1997: §1) “[d]eixis can be defined as the anchorage of an utterance in the extralinguistic context.” Anderson´s and Keenan´s definition (1985) is similar to Fillmore´s:

“Following standard usage, we consider as deictic expressions (or deictics

for short) those linguistic elements whose interpretation in simple sentences

makes essential reference to properties of the extralinguistic context of the

utterance in which they occur.”^[i] (ANDERSON and KEENAN 1985: 259)

The “most frequently quoted definition” (LENZ 2003: VII) of deixis comes from John Lyons (1977):

“By deixis is meant the location and identification of persons, objects, events,

processes and activities being talked about, or referred to, in relation to the

spatiotemporal context created and sustained by the act of utterance and the

participation in it, typically, of a single speaker and at least one addressee.”

(Lyons 1977: 637)

The definitions show that deixis does not merely belong to the field of semantics. The use of deictic elements depends on a particular context. Thus, deixis is on the interface of semantics and pragmatics. Since deixis is a universal phenomenon, typologists examine its variations and similarities throughout the languages of the world. The initial example shows that we rely heavily on deictic elements in every-day language. We refer to places, objects, persons, times, and many more things by means of deixis. Therefore, the study of deixis is not only interesting to linguists but to anyone who is engaged in language in general.

My approach is to use deictic elements in English as a starting point. I will then move on to compare the strategies of English with those of other languages. My aims are to show how wide the range of deictic elements in human language is and how much the concepts of certain languages vary from what we are used to.

There are different types of deixis: The main categories are local deixis, person deixis, social deixis, furthermore time deixis and manner deixis. This paper concentrates on local deixis, “the prototype of deixis” (SENNHOLZ 1985: 168-169). Additionally, a general overview on person and social deixis is provived.

2. Local deixis

(2) “It’s too hot here in the sun, let’s take our drinks into the shade over there.”

(SAAED 1997: 174)

In (2) the local adverbs “here” and “there” refer to places close to (“here”) and further away from (“there”) the speaker’s position. Elements that denote spatial location relative to the location of the speaker are called local or spatial deictics. Local deixis is the most commonly cited type of deixis in scientific literature (cf. ANDERSON and KEENAN 1985: 259).

Spatial deixis “comprises local adverbs, demonstratives, deictic particles, deictic verbs (e.g. movement verbs, such as to come or to go in English).” (HAASE 2002: 760). My main focus is on demonstratives and local adverbs. A brief discussion of deictic verbs, non-deictic strategies of locating objects in space and extensions of local deixis concludes this chapter.

2.1. Demonstratives and local adverbs

2.1.1. Two term systems

Modern English, like many other languages, has a two-term opposition for local adverbs and demonstrative pronouns. The fundamental distinction in English is ‘close to the speaker’ vs. ‘far from the speaker’ (cf. figure 1). How big the area ‘close to the speaker’ is depends on the context. Speakers may refer to a chair, a room, a house, a city or even a country (cf. SAEED 1997: 174).

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 1. Two-term opposition in Modern English

Other languages vary in the number of divisions. It seems to be a language universal that there are at least two different divisions. A possible explanation for this might be that a one-term deictic system would not be much different from a definite article (cf. Anderson and Keenan 1985: 280-281).

2.1.2. Three term systems: person oriented vs. distance oriented systems

Three-term systems are rather frequent throughout the languages of the world. Traditionally, linguists distinguish two main types: Person-oriented and distance-oriented systems. Both systems concur in the proximal level (level 1, ‘close to speaker’) and the distal level (level 3, ‘far away from speaker / speaker and addressee’). Where they differ is on the medial level (level 2). Person-oriented systems designate spatial location on the medial level relative to the position of the addressee (‘close to addressee’). Conversely, distance-oriented systems designate spatial location relative to the position of the speaker; level 2 is further away from the position of the speaker than level 1 but closer than level 3.

As Hofmann (1995) shows, the Japanese three-term system is clearly person-oriented (Hofmann 1995: 62):

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 2. Three-term opposition (person-oriented) in Japanese

(adapted from Hoffmann 1995: 62)

Figure 2 illustrates that all the words in the first row are morphologically related. Each of them begins with the lexical morpheme {ko-}. The unit {ko-} carries the meaning ‘close to the speaker’. Similarly, all the words in the second row begin with the sequence {so-}. {so-} denotes ‘close to the addressee’. All words in the third row start with the morpheme {a-} which carries the meaning ‘far from speaker and addressee’.

Spanish also has a three-term demonstrative system^[ii](‘este’, ‘ese’, ‘aquel’) and a three-term local adverb system (‘aquí’, ‘ahí’, ‘allí’). Anderson and Keenan (1985) describe the Spanish demonstrative system as distance-oriented (ANDERSON and KEENAN 1985: 282). This view is shared by Hottenroth (HOTTENROTH 1982: 141-142).

Saeed (1997) presents the Spanish demonstrative system as distance-oriented (cf. figure 3) but admits that demonstratives “can also be used to relate to the position of an addressee” (SAEED 1997: 174).

near speaker further away furthest from speaker

illustration not visible in this excerpt

Figure 3. Three-term demonstrative system (distance-oriented?) in Spanish

(SAEED 1997: 174)

Jungbluth (2003) rejects both the person-oriented and the distance-oriented system for Spanish demonstratives. She illustrates that these systems fail to explain the use of ‘este’, ‘ese’ and ‘aquel’ in certain circumstances (cf. JUNGBLUTH 2003: 14-18). Instead, Jungbluth shows that native speakers of Spanish use the demonstratives differently in certain contexts (cf. JUNGBLUTH 2003: 18-28, JUNGBLUTH 2001: 1-18):

“…the use of demonstratives in Spanish is determined by the position and

orientation of speaker and hearer relative to each other as well as the position

of the object referred to, relative to the shared space of speaker and hearer.”

(JUNGBLUTH 2003: 13)

As an alternative to the traditional systems, Jungbluth offers a dyad-oriented system (cf. JUNGBLUTH 2003: 18-34) which takes into account the different relative positions of speaker and hearer (JUNGBLUTH 2003: 35).

2.1.3. Four and five term systems

There are few languages in the world that possess systems with four or five terms along one deictic dimension. Linguists also apply the feature person-oriented vs. distance-oriented to these systems.

Sre, a Montagnard language spoken in Vietnam, exemplifies a four-term person-oriented system. Anderson and Keenan (1985: 287) report four demonstrative pronouns: dillustration not visible in this excerpt ‘near speaker’, dEn/gEn ‘near hearer’, nE ‘speaker and addressee are together; object is not close to them’ and hillustration not visible in this excerpt/ ‘remote, out of sight; either spatially or temporally’.

CiBemba, a language spoken in Zambia, has five different demonstratives (cf. WELMERS 1973: 286f). The CiBemban demonstrative system, like the Sre system, is person-oriented.

[...]

^[i] Anderson and Keenan limit their definition to simple sentences. They note that “[…]many items which are deictic in simple sentences cease to be interpreted deictically when they appear in various types of complex structure” (Anderson and Keenan 1985: 259). For further details see Anderson and Keenan 1985: 301-307

^[ii] There are different forms for masculine, feminine and neuter demonstratives. Spanish also distinguishes between singular and plural. The examples use the masculine singular form.