Deixis

The term”deixis” comes from the Greek word for “pointing” and “indicating”. It is a part of
pragmatics which has a simply meaning “pointing” via language or asserting something via
language.

Any linguistics form used to accomplish this pointing is called a deictic expression. Deictic
expressions are also sometimes called indexical. Deixis is used in pragmatics to refer the use of
demonstrative and personal pronoun, specific time and place adverbs like “now” and “here” and
a variety of other grammatical features. According to Levinson (1983:54) “deixis concerns the
ways in which language encode or grammaticalize features of the context of utterance or speech
event, and thus also concerns ways in which interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis
of the context of utterance”. Yule (1996:9) defined that “deixis is a form referring that is tied to
the speakers context, with the most basic distinction between deictic expressions being ‘near
speaker’ versus ‘away from speaker’. In English, ‘proximal terms’ or the near speaker’, are
‘this’, ‘here’, ‘now’. The ‘distal terms’ or the away from speaker are ‘that’, ‘there’, ‘then’.

Types of Deixis
Deixis has an important role in studying pragmatics. It helps people to interpret the meaning of a
certain sentence based on its context. It is supported by Levinson (1983:68-94) defining the
deixis into five types, they are: person deixis, place deixis, time deixis, social deixis and
discourse deixis.

Person Deixis

According to Yule (1996:10), person deixis clearly operates on a basic three-part division,
examplified by pronouns for first person (I),second person (You) and third person (she, he, it).
Person deixis involves the speaker (I) and the addressee (You). In conversation, each person
constantly changes from being Ito being you. The choice of one of these forms instead of
another, because of the surrounding social circumstances is sometimes described as social deixis.

An example of social contrast involving person deixis could be the distinction between forms
used for a familiar versus a non-familiar addressee in some languages. This is known as the T/V
distinction from the French form tu (familiar) and vous (non-familiar), and is also found in other
languages, such as Spanish tú/Usted, Italian tu/Lei, German du/Sie. The choice of one form
communicates something about the speaker’s view of his relationship with the addressee. The
use of the third person pronouns where a second person form would be possible indicates
distance. "This can be done in English for an ironic or humorous purpose as when one person,
who’s very busy in the kitchen, addresses another, who’s being very lazy, as in: "Would his
highness like some coffee?” (Yule, 1996:11)
Besides, deixis is often found in many discourses which used the pronouns. It can be seen by
some examples below:

1. First person

a. Singular form

Ricky said:”I’ll visit your town next week”. (I refer to Ricky)

b. Plural form

Tian, Jane and Rina will leave at eight p.m. They will go to the cinema.We refer to Tian,

Jane, and Rina.

2. Second person

a. Singular form

“I love you”, said Bobby to Mary.

You refer to Mary

b. Plural form

“You must study hard to be clever”, said the lecturer to the students.

You refer to the students.

3. Third person

a. Singular form

Elisabeth is my friend. She is a pretty girl.

She refers to Elisabeth.

b. Plural form

Nico, Bram, and Joko go to the stadium. They watch a football match.

They refer to Nico, Bram, and Joko

Place deixis

According to Levinson (1983:79 in Lyons) place or space deixis concerns the specification of
locations relative to anchorage in the speech event. The importance of location specification in
general can be gauged from the fact that there seem to be two basic ways of referring to objects -
by describing or naming them on the one hand and by locating them on the other. According to
Cruse (2000:320) “spatial or place deixis manifests itself principally in the form of locative
adverbs such as ‘here’ and ‘there’ and demonstratives or determiners such as “this” and “that”.
English has a relatively impoverished spatial deictic system, with only two terms, usually labeled
proximal and distal. The proximal term here means something like “region relatively close to the
speaker” and there means “relatively distant from the speaker”. Furthermore, spatial or place
deixis is the form of the space viewed from the location of participant of the language process. In
English, the adverb of place are “here”, “there” and demonstrative pronoun are “this” and “that” .
The word which shows things or people near from the addressee are : “this” ,”here” , while,
when the people or things are far from the addressee are : “that” and “there” .

For example:

1. The airport is fifteen kilometers from my house. That is too far for me to take you home.

That refers to the Airport.

2. I plan to have a vacation to Bali after finishing my study. Probably, I’ll be there on

November.

There refers to Bali

Time Deixis

Time deixis can also be called as temporal deixis. According to Cruse (2000:321) “temporal
deixis functions to locate points or intervals on the time axis, using the moments of utterance as a
reference point”. There are three major divisions of the time axis, they are: (1) before the
moment of utterance, (2) at the time of utterance, (3) after the time of the utterance. The most
basic temporal deictics in English are “now” and “then”. In another word temporal deixis has a
closely related to adverb of time, where it is the form of time view based on the language activity
happened and made. In English, people can find some examples of temporal deixis. It can be
found in the use of time signal, such as: now, soon, recently, then, yesterday, this year. Besides,
it is usually found in the use of tenses.

For examples, based on time signal:

1. Now, I am still a student.

2. My uncle called me yesterday.

3. Fery, my young brother gave me some money recently.

Based on tenses:

1. The students are studying now (present).

3. My brother will marry next year (future).

Social Deixis

According to Levinson (1983:89 in Fillmore) “social deixis concerns that aspect of sentences
which reflect or establish or are determined by certain realities of the social situation in which
the speech act occurs”. Social deixis encode the social identities of participants (properly,
incumbents of participants roles), or the social relationship between them, or between one of
them and persons and entities referred to. The usage of social deixis brings the use of polite
pronouns and title of address. In Fillmore’s word the social deixis encodes the social relation
ships on the port of the participants in the conversation that determined, for example, the choice
of honorific or polite or intimate or insulting speech level in addition to honorifics, examples
include nicknames, informal names, and title of respect. Social deixis shows the differences of
individuality in each participants roles especially the social status between the addressee. Social
deixis has to do with the marking of social relationship in linguistics expression, with direct or
oblique reference to the social status or role of participants in the speech event. Social deixis also
concerns with the aspect of sentences that reflect by certain realities of the social situation in
which the utterances occurs.

For examples:

1. Mr. For man

2. Mrs. For woman

3. Brother for boy

4. Prof. Dr. Noto negoro

5. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

6. General Sudirman

7. Your honour

8. Prime minister

Discourse Deixis

“Discourse, or text, deixis concerns the use of expressions within some expressions that
utterance refers to some portion of the discourse that contains that utterance (including the
utterance itself)”, Levinson (2000:85). It may conclude in discourse deixis a number of other
ways in which an utterance signals its relation to surounding text, example utterance – initial
anyway seems to indicate that the
utterance that contains it is not addressed to the immediately preceding discourse, but to one or
more steps back. In discourse deixis, people can find the use temporal deixis such as next and
last to refer to portions of the discourse. But, in discourse deixis, it can be found a place or
spatial – deictic term that used again, and especially the demonstrative this and that.

There are many phrases in English that indicate the relationship between an utterance and the
prior discourse. It is generally conceded that such words have at least a component of meaning
that resists truth – conditional meaning treatment. They seem to indicate how the utterance that
contains them is a response to, or a continuation of, some portion of the prior discourse. In
English, there are some deictic expressions which include in discourse deixis, such as: but,
therefore, in conclusion, to the contrary, still, however, anyway, well, besides, actually, all in all,
so, after all, etc.

For examples:

1. Spain beat Italy in the final of Europe Cup ,so they are the champion.

2. Rico has struggled hard to win the game, but finally he lost.

3. Everybody wants to be successful. Therefore, everybody must work hard.