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<div>At 5:26 PM -0500 1/15/01, susan wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Greetings
Linguists,</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Can anyone
help me on a definition of the words<i> deixis</i> and<i>
deictic</i>? Yes, I have looked them up in the dictionary, but I
would like your input on these words. I ran across them in an article
explaining the essence of the transformative nature
of technology and literacy--or the deictic relationships between
them. I begin to see the light, to grasp the meaning and
then it skitters away from me! I am getting frustrated! Also, can you
suggest the proper pronunciation for these words?</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Thank you
all very, very much.</font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">Susan
Gilbert<br>
</font><a href="mailto:mssmith@boone.net"><font face="Arial"
size="-1">mssmith@boone.net</font></a></blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>As used in the philosophy of language and linguistic pragmatics,
deixis refers to the phenomenon of linguistic expressions whose
reference is determined (at least in part) by the context of
utterance. Classic examples of deictic expressions include
"shifters" like<i> I, you, he, she, here, now, yesterday,
ago,</i> and so on, but also definite descriptions<i> (the President
of the U.S.)</i> and tensed verbs. "Deixis" and
"deictic(s)" come from the Greek word for pointing, and
often a distinction is made between deictic and anaphoric uses of
pronouns, e.g. "They're winning the game" (pointing to the
Giants, or to their image on TV) vs. I bet on the Giants, and sure
enough they're winning the game". Others would say that
anaphora is in fact a special case of deixis, where the
"pointing" works via the discourse context. The usual
pronunciation is</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>['daiksIs] (DIE-ksis)</div>
<div>['daiktIk] (DIKE-tick)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry horn</div>
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