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tags:deixis
Deixis
Definition: in linguistics, the use of words of phrases to refer to a particular time, place, or person (then, here, you). A point of reference.
Types
- Personal - personal pronouns refer to grammatical persons involved in an utterance
- Spatial - relative spatial locations “across the street”
- Temporal - time relevant of the utterance “it’s raining now”
Center
A deictic center, sometimes referred to as an origo, is a set of theoretical points that a deictic expression is ‘anchored’ to, such that the evaluation of the meaning of the expression leads one to the relevant point.
Deictic Field
Provide a theoretical framework for helping literary analysist conceptualize the ways which readers redirect their attention away from their immediate surroundings as they become immersed in the reality generated by the text.
In certain linguistic expressions there are inherent ambiguities which the communicators must resolve to understand and disambiguate certain words and phrases. This can only be done contextually.
Deixis is an integral component of the lens by which the audience perceives the narrative.
Like zero in mathematics and the dark space in the theater, deixis orients us within a situation without calling attention to itself
William Labov provides schematics for this - notable the orientation and the coda. The orientation typically occurs at the beginning of the narrative and introduces characters, settings and events. The coda occurs towards the end and terminates the story flow. In doing so, the coda reorients the speakers and listeners out of the story world and back into the communicative present.
Thought
I understand this as a generalization but not necessarily a rule. But there is something interesting said here about the function of a coda.
reorients the speakers and listeners out of the story world and back into the communicative present.
Is an implication of an aborted or incomplete coda, that something of the text will linger. We’ve all encountered “open ended” stories which tug at us after. Are these more conducive to discussion based on this, than a neatly contained and terminated story?
Does open-endedness bleed fictional narrative into our reality deeper?
I complete a read of a love story, it ends with a kiss. I go to the market for errands. I complete a read of a love story, it ends with the romantic leads staring at one another, the question of a kiss. I go to the market for errands.
Thought
The challenge of orientation stops a lot of readers. In some cases is there something ego-driven here, the difficulty of re-centering the “I” from outside yourself, and into someone else? The assumption of new skins provided by reading.
Center
Origo or zero-point is a originating source in relation to the deictic expressions gain their context-dependent meaning. Often the center is the speaker: thus, “I” tokens must refer back to the speaker center and “you” is projected outward.