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One version of the concept of motion toward speaker(i.e. becoming visible),
seems to be the first deictic meaning learned by children and characterizes their use of
words like’this’ and ‘here’(= can be seen).They are distinct from ‘that’ and ‘there’ which
are associated with things that move out of the child’s visual space(=can no longer be
seen).
In considering spatial deixis, however, it is important to remember that location
from the speaker’s perspective can be fixed mentally as well as physically.Speakers
temporarily away from their home location will often continue to use ‘here’ to mean
the(physically distant) home location, as if they were still in that location.Speakers also
seem to be able to project themselves into other locations prior to actually being in
those locations, as when they say ‘I’ll come later’ (=movement to addressee’s
location).This is sometimes described as deictic projection and we make more use of
its possibilities as more technology allows us to manipulate location.If ‘here’ means the
place of the speaker’s utterance( and ‘now’ means the time of the speaker’s
utterance),than an utterance such as[5] should be nonsense.
[5] I am not here now.
However,I can say[5] into the recorder of a telephone answering
machine,prolecting that the ‘now’ will apply to any time someone tries to call me, and
not to when I actually record the words.Indeed , recording[5] is a kind of dramatic
performance for a future audience in which I project my presence to be in the required
location. A similar deictic projection is accomplished via dramatic performance when I
use direct speech to represent the person,location, and feelings of someone or
something else. For example, I could be telling you about a visit to a pet store, as in[6].
[6] I was looking at this little puppy in a cage with such a sad look on its face. It was
like, ‘Oh, I’m so unhappy here, will you set me free?’
The ‘here’ of the cage is not the actual physical location of the person uttering
the words (the speaker), but is instead the location of that person performing in the role
of the puppy.
It may be that the truly pragmatic basis of spatial deixis is actually psychological
distance.Physically close objects will tend to be treated by the speaker as
psychologically close.Also, something that is physically distant will generally be treated
as psychologically distant(for example,’that man over there’).However, a speaker may
also wish to mark something that is physically close(for example, a perfume being
sniffed by the speaker) as psychologically distant ‘I don’t like that’. In this analysis, a
word like’that’ does not have a fixed(i.e. semantic) meaning;instead, it is ‘invested’ with
meaning in a context by a speaker.
Similar psychological processes seem to be at work in our distinctions between
proximal and distal expressions used to mark temporal deixis.
Temporal deixis.
We have already noted the use of the proximal form ‘now’ as indicating both the
time coinciding with the speaker’s utterance and the time of the speaker’s voice being
heard( the hearer’s ‘now’).In contrast to ‘now’, the distal expression ‘then’ applies to both
past[7a.] and future [7b.]time relative to the speaker’s present time.
[7] a. November 22 , 1963? I was in Scotland then.
nd
b. Dinner at 8:30 on Saturday?Okay, I’ll see you then.
It is worth noting that we also use elaborate systems of non-deictic temporal reference
such as calendar time(dates, as in[7a.]) and clock time(hours,as in[7b.]).However, these