“The more two speakers have in common, the less
language they’ll need to use to identify familiar
things” 
“Pragmatics” Chapter 2
“Deixis and distance”
Deixis
Pointing via language by using deictic
expressions or indexicals in utterances.
Deixis signals a referent and it relates that
referent to a common ground shared by the
speaker and the addressee. Typical deictics
include this, that, here, and now. All of these
words have the ability to situate the speaker
and hearer in relation to one another and to the
world around them.
Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose
interpretation is relative to the context of the
utterance, such as
•
who is speaking
•
the time or place of speaking
•
the gestures of the speaker
•
the current location in the discourse
•
The topic of the discourse
Near speaker  proximal terms ( this, here, now)
Away from speaker  distal terms (that, there, then)
For example, I is a deictic pronoun because it
signals the speaker as the referent .
.
Another characteristic of deictics such as I and you is
that their referents change constantly depending on
who is using them.
I refers to me when I say it and refers to another
person when he/she says it.
In this sense, speakers and hearers constantly adjust
their internal registry of deictics to keep up with the
conversation.
News narratives show many examples of deixis:
Example 1 - from a CBS Evening News broadcast.
1. The Americans arrested three suspects, but they
made many more enemies here,
2. when the soldiers shot back at the gunmen hiding in
these houses
“Here” (line 1) and “these” (line 2) are two deictic words.
These lines are a voice-over accompanying video
footage of the village in which the attack occurred.
Listeners (viewer and anchor) know that “here” does
not mean in their own living room, although that is the
point from which the television sound is emanating, but
that “here” refers to a location proximal to the speaker.
In the same manner, “these houses” is understood to
refer to the houses in the video footage.
Example 2
1. But it’s clear the situation here could grow far
worse
2. before the U.S. even has a chance to win it.
In this case, “here” is equivalent to “here in Iraq” or
possibly “here in Baghdad” due to the context of the
previous few sentences, in which the reporter interviews
a U.S. general regarding the current situation on the
ground. It is clear to all involved that “here” does not
mean “here the area that can be seen on the screen
around the me [the reporter].”
Person deixis
I: the speaker
You: the addressee
He, she, it : neither speaker, nor addressee
Social deixis ( in Italian, “lei” “tu”) social status
Spacial deixis
Here / There
This / That
They indicate distance or proximity from the
speaker,
Physical distance or proximity
Mental and psychological distance or proximity
(Ex. deictic projection in the direct speech)
Temporal deixis
Now proximal
Then distal (both past and future)
Temporal events that move toward us (into view) 
this weekend
Temporal events that move away from us (out of
view)
Choice of the verb tense
Present – proximal form
Past – distal form, not only in time but also because
unlikely or impossible: Ex: If I had a yacht….
The distal forms of temporal deixis are used to
communicate not only distance from current time
but also distance from current reality or facts.
Conclusion
Deictic expressions are in the pragmatics
wastebasket
Why?
Because their interpretation depends on the
context, the speaker’s intention, and they express
relative distance.