AN ANALYSIS OF DEIXIS USED IN “THE KING`S SPEECH” FILM`S DIALOGUE
Riki Sunjani (09220291)
riki.sunjani@gmail.com
English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department
Sekolah Tinggi Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (STKIP) Siliwangi Bandung
ABSTRACT
The objectives of the research entitled “An Analysis of Deixis Used in The King`s Speech Film`s Dialogue”
were to find out: 1) the total amount of deixis, 2) to find out the most frequently deixis, and 3) to find out the
least frequently deixis used by the main character in The King`s Speech film`s dialogue. In this research, the
writer used descriptive qualitative method. The instrument of the research that the writer used was a script of
The King`s Speech film. The population of the research were all 58 dialogue containing the deixis in The
King`s Speech film`s script and the sample were 34 dialogue of the main character selected using purposive
sampling technique. To collect data in this research, the writer downloaded the film`s script on
www.gregorymancuso.com and reading them. The collected data were identified, classified, analyzed and
interpreted based on Levinson`s (1983) theory. The results of the research showed that: the total number of
the deixis used by the main character in The King`s Speech film`s dialogue was 1.041 words/deixis. They
include: person deixis (656 words=63%), social deixis (176 words=17%) discourse deixis (121 words=12%)
place deixis (48 words=5%) and time deixis (40 words=3%). The most frequently deixis used by the main
character in The King`s Speech film`s dialogue was person deixis (656 words=63%) and the least frequently
deixis used by the main character in The King`s Speech film`s dialogue was time deixis (40 words=3%).
Key Words: Deixis Analysis, The King`s Speech Film.
about the use of deixis in spoken language. In spoken
language, people can recognize the person, place and
time of deixis because the one who is being talked
about by the speaker is also known by the hearer and
the time when the speaker utters some utterances.
A. Background
Studying languages especially studying English
we should learn in a comprehensive way including
grammar, vocabulary, oral conversation, listening,
writing, reading comprehension and many more. For
college students who are major in English, studying
English becoming more complicated because they
learn it more deeply and there are many subjects to be
learnt too. For example the term deixis, this term is not
familiar with us since it is a technical word in study of
language. Due to language primarily occurs in specific
locations at specific times between specific
participants. Deixis encodes the relationships between
these elements.
Deixis is a word that its referent always moves or
changes depending on the context. It is also stated that
deixis is a part of pragmatics that has connection with
certain words or sentences that changes because of the
context. “The change of context in the sentence is often
caused by the change of situation including personal,
time and place.” (Levinson, 1983:9). The context will
change depends on the situation of personal, time and
place because if the context is changing, the referent
will be changing too.
Deixis appears in spoken language and written
language. In this research, the writer wants to explain
B. Literature Review
1. Pragmatics
Pragmatics was defined firstly by Morris in 1938
(Levinson, 1983:1). Morris states that:
Pragmatics is one of branch of semiotic, the study
about the relation of sign and its interpretation. Morris
divides three branches of semiotic, those are: syntactics
(or syntax) being the “study of the formal relation of sign
to one another”, semantics is “the study of the relations of
signs to the objects to which the signs are applicable
(their designata)”, and pragmatics “the study of the
relation of signs to interpreters.” (Levinson, 1983:1).
According to Levinson, “pragmatics is the study
of those relationship between language and the context
that are grammaticalized, or encoded in the structure of
a language.” (Levinson, 1983:9).
Pragmatics is the study of the aspect of the
relationship between context and language in certain
situation. Therefore, pragmatics deals with situation of
speech and context. Gazdar in Levinson (1983:12)
proposes that pragmatics has its topic those aspects of
1
Deixis is clearly a form of referring that is tied to the
speaker`s context, with the most basic distinction between
deictic expressions being ‘near speaker’ versus ‘away
from speaker’. In English, the ‘near speaker’, or proximal
terms, are ‘this’, ‘here’, ‘now’. The ‘away from the
speaker’, or distal terms, are ‘that’, ‘there’ ‘then’.” (Yule,
1996:9).
the meaning of utterances which cannot be accounted
for by straightforward reference to the truth conditions
of the sentences uttered, then he puts crudely that
pragmatics = meaning – truth conditions. Thus, there
is no meaning in pragmatics if there is no context.
Context helps the speakers to know what the real
meaning of utterances is.
From the theories above we can conclude that
pragmatic is the study of invisible meaning, that is how
to recognize, the underlined meanings which are not
apparently said or written.
2. Context
From what has been said in the pragmatics
definition, that context has an importance function for
pragmatics or linguistics terms. The importance of
context in figuring out ambiguities in spoken or written
language, context also considered as the situation in the
conversation.
Jacob L. Mey states that the context as a part
which cannot be separated from pragmatic discussions,
Mey argued that:
The referent of deixis will be easily known if the
speaker and hearer know the context. In addition,
context gives a comprehensive explanation about the
participants, setting (time or place) and the end of
conversation. It is believed that there are no languages
without deixis because language is full of such deictic
terms. To give a clear picture about deixis, these are
two examples of deixis:
a. “I am terrible in dance”
b. “I found this thing at the yard”
In the first utterance (a), the word “I” is used to
refer to the speaker who utters it, but it is used to refer
to another speaker when someone else utters it. Thus, it
can be seen that even the word “I” in (a) does not
change but the referent enable to changes depending on
who utters it. In example (b), there are two deixis in
one utterance. The first word “I” is used to refer to the
speaker who utters it and the second word “this” refer
to a certain thing that has found by the speaker who
utters it. Thus, in this utterance the speaker and the
thing be able to change depend on the context.
Deixis can be identified through a number of
grammatical features such as:
Context is a dynamic, not a static concept: it is to be
understood as the continually changing surroundings, in
the widest sense, that the enable the participants in the
communication process to interact, and in which the
linguistic expressions of their interaction become
intelligible. (Mey, 2001:39).
From the concepts above, it can be seen that
people cannot understand the meaning of the utterance
without knowing the background of the text in the
utterance or speech event.
3. Deixis
1) Definition of Deixis
Deixis is a word used to indicate something in
many referents whether in space, time, or social
context.
Table 1 Example of Deixis
Deixis is a word borrowed from the Greek word for
pointing or indicating, and has as prototypical or focal
exemplars the use of demonstratives, first and second
person pronouns, tense, specific time and place adverbs
like now and here, and a variety of other grammatical
features tied directly to the circumstances of utterance.
(Levinson, 1983:54)
Furthermore, Levinson (1983:54) propose the
essentially deixis concerns the ways in which
languages encode or grammaticalize features of the
context of utterance or speech event, and thus also
concerns ways in which the interpretation of utterances
depends on the analysis of that context of utterance.
George Yule (1996) in Pragmatics states that
deictic (deixis) expressions are also sometimes called
indexical. Moreover Yule states the deixis as follow:
Demonstratives
This, that, these, those
First and second person pronouns
I, you, we
Adverbs of time
Now, then
Adverbs of place
Here, there
Motion verbs
Come, go, take, fetch
Tense markers
Yesterday, tomorrow
Source:http://www.slideshare.net/teacher14/deixispresentation-final-4th-dec-2012
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2) Kinds of Deixis
There are five types of deixis. They are: person
deixis, time deixis, place deixis, social deixis and
discourse deixis. (Levinson, 1983:62)
Person Deixis
Place Deixis
 Expression used
to point a person
e.g. I, you, we . . .
 Expression used
to point to place
e.g. here, there, . .
.
b) Time Deixis
Absolutely every deictic expression are
inextricably linked from the other deixis, they
always linked. As stated by Cummings (2005:24):
From personal pronouns to vocative, the
establishment of participant role (speaker, hearer,
etc.) in a speech situation is significantly shaped by
features of the social relationship between
participants and by features of the social setting. A
similar interdependence of deictic categories is
evident in the case of time deixis. for example, the
referent of “last week” in the utterance “I left last
week” varies with the point in time that a speaker
produce this utterance.
Discourse Deixis
 Expression used to
refer to an earlier
or a forthcoming
segment of
discourse
E.g. the previous,
next, ...
Time Deixis
Social Deixis
 Expression used to
refer to time
e.g. now, then,
yesterday, last . .
 Expression used to
show respect
e.g. your royal
highnes, your
majesty . . .
Time deixis refers to the time which relative to the
time of speaking or an utterance spoken. On the
other hand, this point is the moment of utterance.
“Time deixis makes ultimate reference to
participant-role, so it is important to distinguish the
moment of utterance from the moment of
reception.” (Levinson, 1983:73) Time deixis will
be easily known if the speaker and hearer
understand the time they utter and the time they
mean.
c) Place Deixis
Place deixis is the place relation between the
speaker and thing that speaker mean. According to
Levinson (1983:62), “place deixis concern the
encoding of spatial locations relative to the
location of the participants in the speech.” Place or
location can be deixis if that place or location can
be seen from the location of the people who are
doing communication in speech event.
d) Social Deixis
“Social deixis concerns the encoding of social
distinctions that are relative to participant-roles,
particularly aspects of the social relationship
holding between speaker and addressee (s) or
speaker and some referent.” (Levinson, 1983:63).
Social deixis is the used of different deictics to
express social distinction. It means that social
deixis is where the form of word used to indicate
the relative social status of the speaker and the
hearer. The example is the difference between
formal and polite forms.
e) Discourse Deixis
“Discourse deixis has to do with the encoding of
reference to portions of the unfolding discourse in
which the utterance (which includes the text
referring expression) is located.” (Levinson,
1983:62)
Figure 1 Kind of Deixis (Source: Alan Cruse, 2000)
a) Person Deixis
Person deixis is a word that refers to someone in
certain context of the utterance. Levinson
(1983:62) states:
Personal deixis concerns the encoding of the role
of participant in the speech event in which the
utterance in question is delivering. The category first
person is the grammaticalization of the speaker’s
reference to himself, second person the encoding of
the speaker`s reference to one or more addresses, and
third person the encoding of reference to persons and
entities which are neither speaker nor addresses of the
utterance in question”.
Personal Deixis is deictic reference to the
participant role of reference, such as the speaker,
the addressee, and referent that are neither speaker
nor addressee. There are some grammatical words
are included into person deixis, such as: subject
pronoun (I, you, they, we, he, she, it), object
pronoun (me, you, him, her, it, us, them),
possessive adjective (my, your, his, her, its, our,
their), possessive pronoun (mine, yours, his, hers,
ours, and theirs), and reflexive pronoun (myself,
yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves, themselves).
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Cummings states that “discourse, or text, deixis
concerns the use in discourse deixis, linguistic
expressions are used to refer to some part of the wider
discourse (either a written text and/or an oral text) in
which these expressions occur.” (Cummings, 2005:28)
4. Film
a) Film Definition
Films/movies are cultural artifacts created by
specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in
turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important
art form, a source of popular entertainment and a
powerful method for educating or indoctrinating
citizens. The visual element of cinema gives motion
pictures a universal power of communication. Some
films have become popular worldwide attractions by
using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue.
(http://www.filmsite.org/filmgenres.html)
b) Summary of The King`s Speech film
This film tells the story a man who became King
George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1925,
the Duke of York is stammer and has troubles to speak
to the public. His wife Elizabeth seeks the treatment of
the speech therapist Lionel Logue that follows
unconventional methods and relationship, and Bertie
gives up the treatment on the first day. However, after
listening to the session that was recorded by Lionel,
Bertie returns to the treatment. In the mid 30's, the
Duke of York was forced to assume the throne of
England as King George VI due to the abdication of his
older brother King Edward VIII. Immediately after,
there is a crisis in the government and England declares
war to Germany. King George VI needs to make a
speech to his compatriots, and his friend Lionel helps
him using an unorthodox technique.
C. Research Methodology
1. Research Method
In this research, the researcher used a descriptive
qualitative method, that is used in the case study,
document analysis and co-relation research. William
Wiersma (1991:14) states that “qualitative research is
context-specific with the researcher`s role being one of
inclusion in the situation.”
Crowl also states “a qualitative method is used to
examine questions that can be best answered by
verbally describing how participants in a study
perceive and interpret various aspect of their
environment.” (Crowl, 1996:10)
2. Instrument of the Research
Instrument research that used in this research is
the researcher itself (human instrument). It means the
researcher as an instrument that involved in this
research for doing research and finding data. The
researcher is helped by table matrix for collecting and
analyzing data. Table matrix is kind of data card that
used by researcher to put the data, to classify, to
identify and to analyze the data. (See figure 2)
3. Research Site and Subjects
In this research, the researcher choose the
population and sample from the script of film, that is
some dialogue of the film`s script or all dialogue of
main charater in The King`s Speech film. As Thomas
Crowl states that “Populations are groups consisting of
all people to whom a researcher wishes to apply the
findings of a study”. Crowl also states that “sample are
subsets of people used to represent populations.”
(Crowl, 1996:8)
The researcher used purposive sampling to take
the sample of the data in this research. According to
Alwasilah “purposive sampling is the way to decide or
to choose sample depends on the result or way that hes
been done.” (Alwasilah, 2002:27). McMillan and
Schumacher also states, “Purposeful sampling is done
to increase the utility of information obtained from
small samples” (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001:401)
Relating to the explanations above, the
population of the research were all 58 dialogue
containing the deixis in The King`s Speech film`s script
and the sample were 34 dialogue of the main character
selected using purposive sampling technique.
4. Data Collection
In conducting this research, the researcher used
the observation technique method to collect data.
Which is “observation enables to draw inferences about
someone`s meaning and perspective that couldn`t
obtain by relying exclusively on interview data.”
(Maxwell, 1996:76)
Alwasilah also states “observation enables the
researcher to draw conclusion about meaning and
respondent`s point of view, incident or data analyzing.”
(2002:155). Consequently, by doing the observation to
collect the data during three months from March to
June 2013 and take home as a place for doing the
research, the researcher saw how the theory was in use
while the data was analyzed.
The researcher used several steps to collect the data:
1. First step the researcher watched The King`s
Speech film.
2. The researcher observed the utterances in the
film`s dialogue.
3. The researcher found the film script of The King`s
Speech on www.gregorymancuso.com
4. The researcher compared the dialogue in the film
to the film script.
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5. The researcher identified the utterances in the
whole of film`s dialogue that contains deixis.
6. The researcher separated some dialogues that
contains the main characters on The King`s Speech
film.
7. The researcher put the data into the table matrix.
The table matrix helped the researcher to classify,
to identify and to analyze the data.
Below is the figure of table matrix for collecting data:
No.
Context
Text
Types of Deixis
Person
Deixis
Time
Deixis
Place
Deixis
Social
Deixis
c. Analyzing
The researcher analyzed the data by exploring
and describing the meaning of the use of deixis in the
film`s dialogue and by using content analysis. The
purpose of the content analysis is to analyze the content
of some pieces of communication.
d. Drawing
After analyzing the data, the writer delineates the
data into five kinds of deixis. They are person deixis,
time deixis, place deixis, social deixis and discourse
deixis and after that the researcher draw the whole
numbers of deixis from the data, describe meaning and
make the conclusion.
Meaning
Discourse
Deixis
D. Findings and Discussion
The King’s Speech film had 100 scenes and had
58 conversations that contained kinds of deixis.
Whereas there are 34 conversations of main character
and 34 numbers of table matrix. The total number of
the use of deixis by main character in The King`s
Speech film`s dialogue was 1.041 words, which were
divided into five kinds of deixis. These were the five
kinds of deixis found in The King`s Speech film`s
dialogue. Person deixis was 656 words, time deixis was
40 words, place deixis was 48 words, social deixis was
176 words, and discourse deixis 121 words. Here the
finding of kind`s deixis in The King`s Speech film`s
dialogue and also the result of how many deixis and its
meaning.
Figure 2 Table Matrix
5. Data Analysis
Analysis in the research is about the search for
explanation and understanding the meaning. According
to Blaxter et al. (1996:186) “analysis is meant to be a
rigorous process, using data that has been carefully
produced and managed.”
According to Maxwell (1996:78) “data analysis
is probably the aspect of qualitative research that most
clearly distinguishes it from experimental and survey
research.”
From the theories that was explained above, the
researcher assumed that the appropriate method to
analyze the data in this research used descriptive
analysis, to classify kinds of deixis, find out how many
deixis in the film`s dialogue and to describe its
meanings.
6. Research Procedures
In the research procedures the writer explains
step by step of analyzing the data. The researcher
conducted some techniques to analyze the data by
arranging some particular steps as follows:
a. Classifying
The researcher clasified the dialogues into two
parts, that is the dialogue of the main character and the
dialogue without the main character of The King`s
Speech film.
b. Describing the Context of the Conversation
The researcher described the context of the
conversation including the participants, setting, time
and place based on the context from The King`s
Speech film`s dialogue.
Table 2 The finding of kind’s deixis
No
1
2
3
4
5
Kind of Deixis
Number of Data
Percentage
Person Deixis
656
63%
Time Deixis
40
17%
Place Deixis
48
12%
Social Deixis
176
4%
Discourse Deixis
121
3%
Total Number
5
1.041
100%
Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. From Local to Global:
Reinventing Local Literature Through English
Writing Classes. Bandung: Teflin Journal,
Indonesia University of Education.
Arifin, Tajul. 2012. Analyzing English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) Classroom Interaction. Apple3l
Journal (1)
Blaxter, Loraine et al. 1996. How to Research.
Buckingham-Philadelpia: Open University Press.
Crowl, K. Thomas. 1996. Fundamentals of
Educational Research (Second Edition). USA:
Brown & Benchmark Publisher.
Cruse, Alan. 2000. Meaning in Language: An
introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Cummings,
Louise.
2005.
Pragmatics:
A
multidisciplinary Perspective. New Jersey:
Edinburgh University Press.
Grundy, P. 2008. Third Edition: Doing Pragmatics.
London: Hodder Education (Part of Hachette
Livre UK)
Halliday, M.A.K & Ruqaiya, H. 1985. Language,
Context and Text: Aspect of Language in a
social-Semiotic Perspective. Melbourne: Deakin
University Press
Huang, Yan. 2007. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics: Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press
Maxwell, Joseph A. 1996. Qualitative Research
Design: An Interactive Approach. California:
SAGE Publication inc.
McMillan James H. & Shumacher Sally. (2001).
Research in Education: A Conceptual
Introduction. New York: Longman.
Mey, Jacob L. 2001. Second Edition: Pragmatics An
Introduction. Malden, Massachusetts: Oxford
University Press
Wiersma, William. 1991. Research Methods in
Education: An Introduction fifth Edition. Allyn
and Bacon: The University of Toledo
Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Dirks, Tim. In Filmsite.org, 2013. Film Site. [On Line]
Retrieved May 8, 2013 and it available at
http://www.filmsite.org/filmgenres.html.
Mancuso, Gregory. 2011. The King Speech’s film
Script Written by David Seidler pdf. [On Line]
Available
on
the
internet
at
http://gregorymancuso.com/2011/04/screenplaysthe-king`s-speech-by-david-seidler/#more-1512
(Accessed on February 26, 2013)
E. Conclusion and Suggestion
1. Conclusion
Based on the result of the research that had been
obtained and analyzed, some conclusion can be drawn
as follows:
a. The King`s Speech film`s dialogue had 58
conversations that contained kinds of deixis.
Whereas there are 34 conversations of main
character that contained kinds of deixis and 34
numbers of tables matrix that used to analyze them.
The total number of the use of deixis by main
character in The King`s Speech film`s dialogue was
1.041 words, which were divided into five kinds of
deixis. Those were person deixis (656
words=63%), social deixis (176 words=17%),
discourse deixis (121 words=12%) place deixis (48
words=5%) and time deixis (40 words=3%).There
were five kinds of deixis found in The King`s
Speech film`s dialogue that used by main character.
b. The result of this research showed kinds of deixis
that the most frequently used by main character in
The King`s Speech film`s dialogue was person
Deixis (656 words=63 %), and;
c. Kinds of deixis that the least frequently used by the
main character in The King`s Speech film`s
dialogue was time deixis (40 words=3 %).
2. Suggestion
a) For students who are major in English Department,
studying English not only study about four skills.
Moreover, we have to know about structure,
meaning, context, and another literary.
b) It is better for other researcher to analyze the use of
deixis in each kind like the use of person deixis,
time deixis, place deixis, social deixis and
discourse deixis. Thus, this study can be enlarged
and developed by other researchers who are
interested in analyzing the use of deixis and its
meaning.
c) It is better for other researcher who will conduct
study in pragmatics fields to take analysis about the
use of deixis in spoken language or written
language. On the other hand, they may analyze the
use of deixis in language not only in the movie, but
also in another object, which may be used as the
object of the research.
F. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alwasilah, A. Chaedar. 2002. Pokoknya Kualitatif:
Dasar-Dasar Merancang dan melakukan
Penelitian Kualitatif. Jakarta: PT Dunia Pustaka
Jaya.
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