DEICTIC REFERENCE IN WRITTEN DISCOURSE

Daiva Verikait
Vilnius Pedagogical University, 39 Studenti} St., LT-08106,
Vilnius, Lithuania, veridaivg)takas.lt
ABSTRACT
Deixis as a means of verbal reference is reflected in the structure of language through
personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns or demonstrative adverbs. The article presents
analysis of the use of time and place indexical expressions, i.e. temporal and locative deictics
in written discourse. Two main types of deictic use - anaphoric and non-anaphoric - are
analysed in the article. The article examines the results of the relative frequency distribution
of temporal and locative deictics in scientific research articles. The results of the analysis
demonstrated that temporal and locative deictic reference in written discourse is used
similarly to that in the spoken discourse. The temporal and locative deictic reference in
the analysed written discourse is organised in an egocentric way: the means that express
central and proximal relations with respect to the time and place of the text production
are preferred to the means that embody peripheral or distal relations.
Keywords: deixis, deictic reference, temporal deictics, locative deictics, indexicals.
INTRODUCTION
The process of communication, which involves the speaker and the addressee, occurs
in a specific spatio-temporal situation. The speaker, who organizes the interaction, wishes
to convey to and to obtain information from the addressee. The addressee is not only the
receiver of information; the addressee is also the giver of information. In this respect the
speaker and the addressee enjoys a similar status: both are partners in this informational
exchange. However, it is the speaker who organizes the process of interaction. His or
her duty is to initiate the exchange. Any exchange necessarily involves the identifica-
tion of entities and processes, or, to use a more precise term, the process of reference.
Reference is a relation between an utterance and an individual or set of individuals that
it identifies (Matthews, 1997,312). Referential items can be situational (exophoric) or
textual (endophoric). An exophoric item refers to a thing identified within the context of
situation. Items of textual reference are defined as anaphoric and cataphoric. In the case
of anaphoric reference the linguistic item refers to some linguistic item in the preceding
segment of the text, and in the case of cataphoric reference, the linguistic item refers
to some other linguistic item in the segment of the text that follows (Halliday, Hasan,
1976,33). In other words, reference is a semantic relation between the verbal referent
and the referring items, i.e. it is a form of verbal pointing: the referring item refers to its
referent by way of verbal pointing to it.
135
No matter whether exophoric or endophoric reference is used, the addressee must
know which entity or process the speaker has in mind. To help the addressee, the speaker
resorts to the use of specific linguistic forms called deictics, or indexicals, i.e. structures
whose meaning is relative to a specific situation. These structures help the participants
of the communicative act to navigate through a spatio-temporal area of the process of
communication.
Deixis is a word borrowed from the Greek verb meaning 'pointing' or 'indicating'.
In pragmatics, deixis is a term used to denote a word or a phrase which directly refers
to entities, processes, attributes and circumstances. In other words, deictic expressions
are used by the speaker to identify entities, processes, attributes and circumstances in
both linguistic and extra-linguistic situations. When the speaker and the addressee are
in an extra-linguistic situation, the identification of the referents is easy. So, for instance,
if the speaker and the addressee are in the same room, the entities are visible to both
the speaker and the addressee, e.g. when the speaker says I, the addressee knows that I
is the person speaking now; when the speaker says this book, the addressee knows that
this book means the book close to the speaker; when the speaker says yesterday, the ad-
dressee knows that yesterday means the day before the time of the utterance. As can be
seen, debcis gets its meaning from the situation. Therefore, the interpretation of deictic
reference in the spoken discourse is easy. However, in the written discourse (texts) its
interpretation becomes more complex for several reasons: 1) the coding time and the
receiving time of the particular discourse can be quite remote, i.e. the temporal span
between the moment of encoding when the writer creates the text and the moment of
decoding when the reader perceives the text can be very large; 2) the location of the
participants is different, i.e. the writer at the moment of text production is in a different
location than the reader at the moment of text perception; 3) in most cases the partici-
pants of the interaction (the writer and the reader) are unfamiliar.
The problems of deixis and deictic reference were extensively analysed by Lyons
(1975), Levinson (1983), Hanks (1992), Nunberg (1993), Grundy and Jiang (1998),
Grundy (2000), and Glover (2000). The focus of analysis in most of the studies was
on spoken discourse. According to Levinson (1983,85), deixis in spoken discourse is
organised in an egocentric way:
1. The central person is the speaker.
2. The central time is the time at which the speaker produces the utterance.
3. The central place is the speaker's location at the utterance time.
4. The discourse centre is the point at which the speaker is currently at in the pro-
duction of utterance.
The hypothetical question arises whether the principles of deixis organization used
in spoken discourse apply to written discourse.
Therefore, the aim of the present article is to examine the use of deictic reference in
written discourse and find out whether the principles of deixis organization used in
spoken discourse are applied to written discourse.
136
The corpus for analysis was drawn from 216 scientific research articles written by
different authors, which involved 1,750 pages of the text. The mean frequency of the
occurrence of a particular item of deictic reference was calculated; the relative frequency
of each type of items under analysis was determined.
1. TYPES OF DEICTIC REFERENCE
According to Levinson (1983,54), deixis concerns both the ways in which language
incodes or grammaticalize the features of the context of utterance and in which the
interpretation of utterances depends on the analysis ofthat context of situation. Deixis
concerns the encoding of many different aspects of the circumstances surrounding the
utterance and within the utterance itself. Every language utterance is made in a specific
place, at a specific time, and by a specific person addressing a specific person. Therefore,
traditional categories of deixis are person, place and time.
Person deixis concerns the encoding of the role of participants in the speech events in
which the utterance is delivered: the P' person is the grammaticalization of the speaker's
reference to himself; the 2"'' person is the encoding of the speaker's reference to one
or more addressees; the 3'^'' person is the encoding of reference to persons and entities
which are neither speakers nor addressees of the utterance.
Place deixis concerns the encoding of spatial locations relative to the locations of the
participants in the speech event. Most of languages, English including, grammaticalize
at least a distinction between proximal (close to speaker) and distal (non-proximal) to
speaker (sometimes close to addressee).
Time deixis concerns the encoding temporal points and spans relative to the time at
which the utterance was spoken.
Levinson (1983,85) also distinguishes discourse (or text) deixis, which concerns the
use of expressions within an utterance to refer to some portion of the discourse. Dis-
course deixis, according to Levinson (ibid., 67), can be of two types: 1) non-anaphoric
and 2) anaphoric.
Levinson makes a distinction between anaphora and discourse deixis in the follow-
ing way: if a pronoun or other demonstrative item refers to a linguistic expression (or
a chunk of discourse itself) it is discourse-deictic; where a pronoun refers to the same
entity as a prior linguistic expression refers to, it is anaphoric. Therefore, discourse-deictic
and anaphoric items are not mutually exclusive.
Lexical means expressing the category of deixis are personal pronouns, demonstra-
tive pronouns or demonstrative adverbs.
In this article we will focus on the use of temporal and locative deictics, i.e. on the
use of demonstrative deictic this and demonstrative adverbs here, there, now and then,
which refer to the location of a process in space or time. They normally do so directly
not via the location of some person or object that is participating in the process. They
typically function as adjuncts in the clause, not as elements of the nominal group.
137
2. TEMPORAL DEICTIC REFERENCE
Temporal deictic reference is concerned with the encoding of temporal points and
spans relative to the time at which an utterance is spoken or a written message is pro-
duced. As the results ofthe present study are drawn from written discourse, we analyse
the temporal points relative to the time the texts are produced. EoUowing Eillmore (1971),
the temporal point at which the text is produced is called coding time and the temporal
point at which the text is received by a reader is called receiving time. Temporal deictic
reference is grammaticalized in deictic adverbs of time and the grammatical category
of tense.
Time deixis makes reference to participant roles; therefore, now can be defined as the
time at which the writer produces the text containing now. Hanks (1992,52) suggests
that one of the principal meanings of now is "the time immediate to this utterance". In
the act of speech the coding time and the receiving time can be assumed as identical
(Lyons, 1977,685). However, in written texts the span between the coding time and the
receiving time can vary from several weeks to several months, depending on the time
of production, publishing and text decoding.
The limits of this process obscure, however, the span between the coding time and
receiving time is not very important in written texts since the time of coding is projected
to the time of receiving.
The time dimension ofthe temporal deictic now can extend from a certain moment
in the process of text production to several decades or even centuries. Consider:
1. The corresponding specifications for energy and nutrients are now presented.
The temporal deictic now, as used in the text above, can be identified with a particular
moment in the process of text production. However, such instances are not common in
the analysed texts. The majority of the instances with the temporal deictic now imply
a greater span of time:
2. The fact that Zoalene has been the only coccidiostat used in Malawi for several years,
and whilst it has been shown by Reid (1975) that resistance to Zoalene develops slowly, it
is probable that some resistance has now developed.
3. In many countries the use of chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides is now restricted.
Text 1 demonstrates the use of now which is the closest to the coding time and the
expansion of time span is the narrowest. However, in texts 2 and 3 the interpretation
of now is more complicated. The reader of text 3 may interpret now as expanding from
several years to several decades; however, the information that would justify the exact
time dimension is not found in the texts. In order to interpret now, the reader has to
use his general knowledge for the interpretation of the specific information concern-
ing the statements presented in the text. On the one hand, scientific texts are supposed
to be read by specialists of a particular field; therefore, it should not be difficult for the
person interested in the subject to realise the approximate time ofthe event mentioned.
On the other hand, in default of any information in the text the time span now could
be interpreted as:
138
1. A certain moment in the process of text creation - a particularized meaning of
now.
2. A certain moment or period in the development of some process in the extra-
linguistic world - a generalised meaning of now.
All instances of now are ultimately deictic; however, not all instances are cohesive.
Text 1 demonstrates the use of now directly connected to the moment in the process of
text creation and has direct reference to the chunk of the succeeding text. Therefore, it
is considered to be cohesive. Such instances of now with a particularized meaning are
inconsiderable and have not much influence on the coherence of the analysed texts. Now
with a generalised meaning has even less bearing on the text cohesion.
2.1. The Temporal Meaning of Here.
Although the main meaning o here is that of place, it also has an invariant meaning
of time, i.e. it may indicate a certain moment or a point in time in the process of text
creation hence it can express temporal relations.
4. Finally, to keep harvesting machines fully operational they must be adequately sup-
plied with empty containers and full ones need to be removed promptly. Here again problems
of manoeuvring large containers ofien cause logistic problems that limit the development
of harvesting equipment.
Here, as used in the above text, can be considered a temporal expression rather than
locative since it indicates a point in time rather than a point of place. Consequently, here
can be considered a counterpart of now^ Here with a temporal meaning is not common
in the analysed texts. It accounts for merely 0.5 per cent of total occurrences of here,
therefore, is not subjected to a more detailed analysis.
2.2. The Temporal Deictic Then
The temporal deictic now stands in opposition to the temporal deictic then, which
could be defined as expressing:
1. A particular time in the past or future.
2. Next in time, space and order, immediately afterward.
Then, when used with the first meaning, can refer to some linguistic element in
the preceding text and function anaphorically. As noted by Levinson (1983,85),"since
discourse unfolds in time, it seems natural that time-deictic words can be used to refer
to portions of the discourse." When used with the second meaning, then functions con-
junctively. In approximately one third of all the occurrences then functions anaphorically,
whereas in two thirds of the occurrences it functions conjunctively. Consider:
5. The first reported natural occurrence ofOA was in a low grade sample of corn ana-
lysed in a survey in the United States (Shotwell et al, 1969). Since then contamination
of cereals, animal feedstuffs and mixed diets have been reported from various countries,
including Japan.
6. The foreign DNA rapidly ligated into larger molecules, it replicated about 20-fold in
the first 24 hr and was then gradually lost.
139
Then in text 6 functions conjunctively and instances of conjunctive then are the most
frequent in the analysed texts. The conjunctive use of then accounts for 82 per cent,
whereas the deictic use accounts for 12 per cent of the occurrences. However, conjunc-
tion is beyond the scope of our analysis.
Text 5 demonstrates the anaphoric then, which refers to the immediately preceding
sentence. Although the preceding sentence does not contain an exact indication of time,
however, the implication is sufficient. Then refers to the time, which is indicated in the
preceding sentence. The reference of the anaphoric then to the numerical expression
of time in the preceding text creates a cohesive link between two sentences integrating
them into a unified whole.
In fact, then can function cataphorically, however such cases are not frequent in the
analysed texts. Such being the case, the anaphoric function of then is the only function
contributing to the integrity of the text. However, its infrequent use can be accounted
for by the fact that temporal relations are not of crucial importance to science texts; on
the other hand, a category of tense is sufficient means of temporal indication. Moreover,
some other lexical means used to express temporal relations are often observed in the
texts. It is interesting to note that the most frequently used lexical means of temporal
expression in the analysed texts are today, at present and at this point.
3. LOCATIVE DEICTIC REFERENCE
Place deixis concerns the encoding of spatial locations relative to the locations ofthe
participants in the speech events (Levinson, 1983,62). The pure locative deictic adverbs
in English are here and there. In English they encode two degrees of proximity to the
speaker - 'proximal' and 'distal' (Grundy, 2000,28). In the majority of cases the locative
deictic items in a science text do not concern the location of the participants literally:
they indicate that the referent is identifiable somewhere in the text.
3.1. Locative Deictic This
Scientific texts are highly abstract in character; they are detached from the specific
situation of their production. Therefore, the use of deixis, namely, the exophoric deictic
element this with the modified noun designates specific boundaries of the perceptual
cognition of the reader.
The use of deixis of the type 'in this paper' occurs frequently, especially at the begin-
ning and at the end of scientific texts, in summaries and abstracts.
As noted by Ehlich (1994,213), 'this paper'is a new entity in the world of writer and
reader. The writer constructs this reality and the reader has it in his/her hands. The text
is accessible to the sense perception for both of them.
Consequently, in almost half of all the deictic occurrences of this it is used with the
noun paper, in one fourth it is used with the noun review, the rest nouns such as context,
study, research, discussion and thesis are also observed in the analysed texts. A list ofthe
most frequently used nouns modified by the deictic this is presented in Figure 1.
140
The position of the noun phrase with the deictic this is mostly restricted to:
1) the first paragraph of the text:
7. Some of the possibilities that have been proposed are considered in this pa-
per <...>.
2) the last paragraph of the text:
8. Several studies on pathological, immunological and behavioural aspects of stress are
in accord with this thesis. Thus, the obvious question is whether stress may possess desirable
qualities. In this review we provide some elucidation of this question and discuss the lines
of evidence supporting the notion.
5%-,
50/ \ 5%
Iah 1^-
- TO/ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ BHH| ^ H
20%
" ^ 4 8 %
n Paper
Review
a Study
a Research
Discussion
Thesis
Contex
Q Other nouns
Figure 1. The relative frequency of the nouns modified by the deictic this
3.2. The Locative Deictics Here and There
The main meaning of here is that of place. The results of the data analysis demon-
strated that in 99.5 per cent of the occurrences here indicates place and in 0.5 percent
of the occurrences it expresses temporal relation. Here also implies proximity to the
speaker or the participants in the act of speech and it stands in opposition to there,
which expresses locative relations indicating a particular place in some aspect remote
from the speaker or participants in the communicative act. Consider:
9. That the variation in this ratio may be responsible for the variation in the observed
fatness is suggested by the data in Fig. 1. Here the ratio is plotted against CPI ME for all
nine of the feeds used by Kirchgessner et al (1978).
10. Recent archaeological evidence reported by West and Zhou (1988) indicates that
by 6000 BC chickens had already become established in China. From here they reached
Japan via Korea between about 300 BC and 300 AD.
Both texts demonstrate the locative meaning of here functioning anaphorically. In
both texts here refers to the noun phrase identifiable in the preceding text. The only
difference between the two uses of here lies in the origin of the referent. In text 9 here
refers to the noun phrase ^^re 1 used in the preceding sentence and it also refers to
the figure that illustrates the data discussed in the article. Therefore, here exhibits a
dual - anaphoric and exophoric - function. Here in text 10 exhibits an anaphoric func-
tion since it points to the noun phrase China.
141
The cataphoric function of here is observed only in a few cases:
11. In the foregoing section the main methods of demonstrating stress were enunciated.
Here the literature on the actual responses measured will be considered. In accordance
with the criteria mentioned above, either singly or severally, depending on the workers
concerned, Stressor activity can be ascribed to heat (Ben Nathan et al, 1976; Edens and
Siegel, 1975; Benvingand Vonder, 1978; Siegel and Gould, 1982); cold (Garren and Shaff-
ner, 1956) etc <...>.
The locative here refers forward to a rather large stretch of the text. Its reference is
cohesive since it is not structurally predetermined.
The cataphoric here is closely related to the reference item this. As a result, they can
be interchangeable. Consequently, here can refer to the extended text, but often with the
meaning that is not of place but of respect (Halliday, Hasan, 1976,74).
The locative here is opposed to the locative there. The data analysis demonstrated
that locative there was extremely rarely used in the analysed texts. Only a very few cases
of the anaphoric there were found. Consider:
12. The predicted effects of these assumptions are shown in Table 3a. On the assumptions
made there, a substantial increase in fatness is predicted as feed protein content falls.
The locative there points back to the referent linguistically encoded as the noun
phrase Table 3a; therefore, the extra-linguistic referent is within the limits of the same
text. Consequently, there has a dual function: anaphoric - it points back to the linguistic
referent in the preceding text and exophoric - it points to the table. The dual function
of there could be effective for the integrity of the text. However, due to the infrequent
use it hardly affects the cohesion of the analysed texts.
Summing up, the analysis of the data displayed the following tendency: deictics
that express central or proximate position with respect to the time and place of text
production were used far more frequently than those embodying peripheral or distal
relation. Consequently, 89 per cent of the adverbial occurrences were constructed in
an egocentric way with respect to the time and place of text production. The relative
frequency of each temporal and locative item is presented in Eigure 2.
Here 1
29% "
Then
9%
m
There
2%
^ ^ ^ 60%
E3 Now
Here
DThen
D There
Figure 2. The relative frequency of the temporal and locative deictic items
142
CONCLUSION
The results ofthe analysis demonstrated that temporal and locative deictic reference
in written discourse is used similarly to that in the spoken discourse. The temporal and
locative deictic reference in the analysed texts of scientific research articles is organised
in an egocentric way: 1) the central person is the writer; 2) the central time is the time
at which the writer produces the text; 3) the central place is the writer's location at the
time of text production. Therefore, the linguistic means that express central and proximal
relations with respect to the time and place of the text production are preferred to the
means that embody peripheral or distal relations.
REFERENCES
1. Ehlich, K. 1994. Scientific texts and deictic structures. In: Baakes, K. (ed.) Key Issues
of Syntax in the Special Languages of Science and Technology. English - German.
Heidelberg: Groos, 201-229.
2. Fillmore, C. 1971. Towards a theory of deixis. In: The PCCLLU Papers (Department
of Linguistics, University of Hawaii), 3-4,219-241.
3. Glover, K. D. 2000. The sequential analysis of proximal and distal deixis in negotia-
tion talk. In: Journal of Pragmatics 32/7.
4. Grundy, P. 2000. Doing Pragmatics. London: Arnold.
5. Grundy, P. and Jiang, Y. 1998. Deictic reference and cognitive semantics. In: HKPU
Working Papers in Chinese and Bilingual Studies i, 85-103.
6. Halliday, M. A. K. and Hasan, R. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
7. Hanks, W. F. 1992. The indexical ground of deictic reference, in Duranti, A. and Good-
win, C. (eds.). In: Rethinking Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43-76.
8. Levinson, S. C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9. Lyons, J. 1975. Deixis as the source of reference. In: Keenan, E. L. (ed.) Formal Se-
mantics of Natural Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 61-83.
10. Lyons,}. 1977. Deixis and anaphora. In: Meyers, T (ed.) The Development of Conver-
sation and Discourse. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
11. Matthews, P. H. 1997. Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
12. Nunberg, G. 1993. Indexicality and deixis. In: Linguistics and Philosophy 68,1-43.
SANTRAUKA
DEIKTINE REFERENCIJA RASYTINIAME DISKURSE
Daiva Verikait
Straipsnyje nagrinjamas leksiniij priemoniq, ireiakian4 deiktin laiko ir vietos
referencijq, vartojimas raytiniame diskurse. Deiks kaip verbalin referencijos raika
kaiboje atsispindi vartojant asmeninius ir parodomuosius jvardiius, parodomuosius
143
prieveiksmius ir kitas leksines-gramatines priemones. Straipsnyje analizuojami du
deiktins referencijos tipai: laiko deiktin referencija ir vietos deiktin referencija. At-
likus leksiniij priemoniij, ireikianciij mintus du referencijos tipus, vartojimo tekste
santykinio daznumo skaiciavimus,buvo nustatyta, kad deiktins referencijos vartojimas
rasytiniame diskurse nesiskiria nuo jos vartojimo sakytiniame diskurse: tiek rayti-
niame, tiek sakytiniame diskursuose deiktin referencija konstruojama egocentriSkai:
1) pagrindinis asmuo yra teksto krjas, 2) pagrindinis laikas yra teksto krimo laikas,
3) pagrindin vieta yra vieta, kurioje yra teksto krjas, kurdamas tekst^. Todl anali-
zuotuose tekstuose dominuoja leksins priemones, kurios geriau padeda konstruoti
deiktin referencija egocentriskai.
144