(1) Tom is the boy’s new friend. They are talking about their birthdays.
A: Hey, Tom. When are you born?
B: 5.20.1984.
A: Mum, Tom’s birthday is the same with mine. The day, the month and the year, all of these are same.
C: Really? That sounds great!
No matter when the speaker talks about the birthday, he always refers to 5.20.1984. That is the magic power of the non-deictic time.
3. 2. 3 The expression of compound time in conversation
The expression of compound time is the combination of the expression of deictic time and the expression of non-deictic time. It also time deixis when date and deictic modifier are used together. So-called deictic modifier is some demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, such as this, that, next, last; they are collaborated with the time units, such as week, month, year, morning, evening, etc. According to different contexts, they transmit different time deictic information and express different pragmatic meanings.
This is related to the speaking moment. This week refers to the week or some moment of this week when the speaker is speaking. This month and this year have the similar pragmatic meaning. But when this is used together with the calendar time units together, the situation will become complicated. Sometimes, it will produce ambiguousness. Because these words, such as week, month and year, cannot only be units of calendar, but also units of time tolerance. Next is a unit of calendar time, indicating the time behind the speaking moment; last a unit of calendar time, indicating the time before the speaking moment. While the words, before last and after next, respectively indicate two units of calendar time ahead and behind the speaking moment.
In addition, in our daily communication, people often choose the expression of deictic time. This is so-called pre-emptive-usage. For example, the speaking time is on Monday. If people want to express the next day, they often use tomorrow, not Tuesday. But if they want express the day next the next day, people will choose the expression of the day after tomorrow or Wednesday. But if people want to express the day in this way again, there will not the expression of the day after the day after tomorrow. In this case, people only can use the expression of non-deictic time, namely, Thursday.
3. 3 The place deixis in conversation
Place deixis is the means to refer to the direction in linguistic events relative with the deictic center. The direction of a thing can be determined, according to the places relative with the ones where other things are or the fixed points of references. For example:
(1) The situation is in a street. A stranger asks the way to the station.
A: Excuse me, I am a stranger here. I do not know where the station is. Can you tell me how to go there?
B: Ok. The station is two hundred yards from the Cathedral.
A: Thank you!
B: It’s my pleasure.
It can also show the places clearly, according to the places where participants stay, when they are speaking. For example:
(2) The situation is in a street. A stranger asks the way to the station.
A: Excuse me, I am a stranger here. I do not know where the station is. Can you tell me how to go there?
B: Ok. It is two hundred yards away.
A: Thank you!
B: It’s my pleasure.
Some words are pure place deixises, such as English adverbs here and there, demonstrative pronouns this and that. Generally, when the speakers are the point of reference, here is near reference, while there is distant reference. But there can be also the near reference, when the speaking aim of receiving time is the point of reference. The differentiation of near reference and distant reference in demonstrative pronouns may be obvious. This is used as near reference, that as distant reference. However, the situation is more complicated. Sometimes, people use this not that for the emotional intimation, and vice versa for emotional strangeness. Lyons calls this as empathetic deixis. But it is should be attended that these differentiations of deixis usually depend on the different participants, not simply based on the distance from the fixed deictic center. Some deictic systems divide it into three-dimensional space: above the speaker, below the speaker, at the same horizon with the speaker. Levinson once gave an example:
(3) A: Jim, do you know the man called Bob?
B: Yes, Bob is the man to the left of Mark.
From the example, people can know that Bob can be to the left of Mark, which is non-deictic usage, and he can also be to the left of the observers which is deictic usage. The man to the left of Mark is who on earth depends on the speaker, whether he faces to Bob and Mark, or behind them. This is the view of Hezhaoxiong.
At last, we will see some motion verbs with inner deictic components in this section. In English, the difference between come and go indicates the different direction where the participant’ acts happen. For example, He is coming. The meaning is that he is moving toward the direction where the speaker is in coding time. While the meaning of the utterance that he is going is that he is far away from the direction where the speaker is in coding time. But when the speaker is in the moving situation, place deixis will be complicated. It needs time words to refer to directions. For example:
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