As we learned in class, deixis are words that the speaker uses to make references to the proximity of events, people or places. In my opinion, deixis allow people to better clarify their ideas by allowing the speaker to demonstrate with words a more general picture of what they are trying to convey. They do this by using words of reference that allow the listener to estimate the proximity of the event, object, or place being mentioned. There are three different types of deixis: People, time, and space. The distance towards the speaker can be estimated by how close or far something is taking place from the speaker. The deitic center directly involves the speaker; proximal are events that are very close to the speaker; and distal are events that the speaker must refer to from a distance.
People deixis are personal pronouns; they can give the listener an idea as to the closeness or proximity of the people the speaker is referring to or interacting with.
Time deixis refer to when an event is taking place, whether it's in the present, the near past, the distant past, the near future, or the distant future.
Space deixis refers to objects' distance away from the speaker.
To better understand deixes, the proximity of things that a speaker conveys in a conversation, we have to know that we are pointing on time, space, and people. To clearly establish this connection I will be giving an example from a song called, “Just Give Me a Reason” from an artist called Pink, featuring Nate Ruess, on September 11, 2013. The excerpt was taken from a lyrics website called azlyrics.
ReplyDeleteRight from the start
You were a thief
You stole my heart
And I your willing victim
I let you see the parts of me
From the first sentence we can see there is spatial deixes by the phrase “Right from the start.” The word “start” indicates the deitic center(d.c) of not just the phrase but also the overall beginning of the relationship. Following, the second line is lead by a people deixis, “You” that represents first person singular in the proximal axis, and a temporal deixis by the word “were” that indicates the past tense in the proximal axis. It continues with the same pattern after saying,“And I your willing victim” changing the axis from the d.c with “I” then with “your” on the second person singular of the proximal axis while maintain the people deixis in the first person present tense. Then saying, “ I let you see the parts of me” with “I” on the d.c and you on the proximal axis of temporal deixis, while “see” is on the d.c of the temporal deixis, “of” situating an object (realistically the physical human) on the d.c of the spatial deixis telling space, and “me” on the first person d.c of people deixis.
In conclusion this example doesn’t stray away from saying you or I because it helps to associate the speaker’s emotions to a specific kind of person directly and/or indirectly depending on the content of the speaker and to whom it says it to, if at all to a person. This is a song so one can use it to sing in the shower or say it to one another in many forms to mean different things.
With Deixis, we can communicate easily. It helps us to refer to something without repeating. For example, when we are looking for a bottle of milk--
ReplyDeleteMe: Can I have the milk?
Someone: Sure. It is on the table.
In this situation, we can get the milk easily. Even though we that person did not mention "the milk", I am still able to understand.
There is one thing about people deixis I would like to talk about.
In English, no matter under what situations, we talk in the same way. Yet, if some cultures such as Korean, you talk base on where you are and who you are talking to.This is related to "Social deixis" which is on page 10 of the textbook.
In Korean, they seldom use the word "you". When they call people, they usually don't put the word "you" in the conversation. People usually use "you" when they call their friends or people who are younger. However, even "you" is not used, they still able to understand who the speaker is talking to. Example will be--
Me: Customer, What (are you) looking for?
Customer: (Do you) have miso soup?
In the example, although the people deixis had not been used, both of the speaker and the listener can understand.
When the listener was not sure we are talking to them, in Korean culture, they won't say "I am talking to you". But they will say--
Team leader Kim: Are you talking to team leader Choi?
Me: No, I am talking to team leader Kim.(While we are looking at team leader Kim; In English, we say "No, I am talking to you")
My example of deixis is the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from the famous musical "Les Miserables" which is based on the book by Victor Hugo. The song is sung by the character Fantine, a young girl who is very down on her luck. The song is about her regrets in life, from being scorned by a man and left a single mother cast out to the mean streets of Paris. In the song there are deictic words such as "I", "he", "they" which refer to personal deixis. In the lyrics " there was a time when men were kind..." and "I dreamed a dream in time gone by/ when hope was high and life worth living" which signify temporal deixis.
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