(4) A: What did you say to me just now?
B: There’s a good fast joint just ten minutes from here.
3. 4 Discourse deixis in conversation
Discourse deixis is to use a part of discourse, and the used words are included in it. Because of the spread of discourse, naturally, people can use time deixis to refer to a part of the discourse, such as in the last paragraph, in the next chapter. Of course, people can also use place deixis, especially demonstrative words this and that. This stands for the former discourse, while that the latter discourse. But people should distinguish the difference between discourse deixis and anaphora. Otherwise, it will cause confusion. Anaphora is demonstrative figure, using pronouns to mention some word appearing just now. For example:
(1) A: What do you think Harry?
B: Harry has a sweetheart; he’s so considerate.
It can say that Harry and he are co-referential, which choose the same figure. When a pronoun refers to itself, it is discourse deixis; when a pronoun refers to the figure referred by the former word, it is anaphora. Therefore, discourse is intimate with mention and quotation at the moment. For example:
(2) A: Tom, what is that?
B: That is apple.
A: Can you spell it to me?
B: A-P-P-L-E.
A: Great! Well done, Tom.
Here it does not refer to apple itself, but apple this word, just mentioning the word, not substituting for the fruit----apple.
3. 5 Social deixis in conversation
People often limit social deixis to the linguistic structure and use grammatical forms to indicate participants’ social status and the relation between participants or between participants and referred figures. Among different languages in the world, the information of social deixis expressed by grammatical forms is divided into two basic types: relational and absolute. And relational is most important. There are generally the following relations:
(a) The relation between speakers and demonstrative figures
(b) The relation between speakers and aim of conversation
(c) The relation between speakers and hearers
(d) The relation between speakers and social environment
When the three former relations touch upon relative status and dignity, the form of expression is respective titles. Apart from this, there are other relations, such as kinship, nationhood, family relation, etc. They can be also expressed by grammatical forms. The traditional description usually makes confusion between the two former relations. The differentiation between the two relations is that the former just indicates the honor, referring to the respective aims, while the latter is vice versa.
4 The usages of deixis in conversation
Actually, deixis refers to the linguistic components basically or mainly used as deictic things. Many of these components have non-deictic usage. In deictic usages, it needs to distinguish the classification. “Fillmore distinguishes two kinds of deictic usages: gestural usage and symbolic usage.”[9]
4. 1 The gestural usages in conversation
The gestural usage of deixis is usually used together with the words which are accompanied by the linguistic features, such as using hand to point at somebody or something; nodding the head up and down; expressing a meaning in one’s eyes, etc. If people want to understand these deictic words, they should know what kind of associate methods the speaker uses while taking with others. For example:
(1) Consultation for that man’s name.
A: Who is that man?
B: Which man?
A: He is standing in the garden. Is he Tom?
B: Oh, he is not Tom, he is…, and he is Peter.
(2) Asking for a help.
A: Can you help me?
B: Yes?
A: I want you to put the book there.
B: Here?
A: Not here, is there.
B: Ok, I know that.
A: Thank you.
B: It is my pleasure.
If people only to hear someone talking about these, not to know the situation what he is speaking, they cannot exactly know who is Tom and who is Peter; meanwhile, they cannot know where the book is put, either.
So, people should be personally on the scene, namely, they should not only hear the sound of the speaker, but also see the figure in the conversation. Only this, they can properly comprehend the gestural usage of deixis. Or through some way, such as people can play video recording to get the reappearance of the communicative situation just now. Therefore, the comprehension of the gestural usage of deixis should completely depend on the actual communicative situation.
4. 2 The symbolic usages of deixis in conversation
Different from the gestural usage of deixis, when the symbolic usage is used, it doesn’t need hand gestures, expression in eyes, etc. to follow. And when people comprehend it, the actual communicative context needs not to reappear. People just know the much larger scale of time, place and participants only with communicative time and place. With some knowledge of context, people should not personally on the scene. Without the reappearance of communicative context, they can still understand the following deixis. For example:转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net
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