[Lingtyp] "I-now-here"

[Juergen Bohnemeyer]

Dear Tasaku — Bühler (1934) proposes a highly influential theory of linguistic indexicality or ‘deixis’ (he coined the term), or really an entire theory of language that revolves around a theory of indexicality as its centerpiece. The theory postulates three types of deictic expressions: those expressing person deixis, spatial deixis, and temporal deixis. (Fillmore 1997 [1975] later proposed that honorific and redressive expressions should be considered as constituting a fourth type, which he called ‘social' deixis; however, while there are important similarities between such expressions and Bühlerian deictics, there are also considerable differences between how such expressions function and how deictic expressions in Bühler’s sense function, as discussed in Bohnemeyer 2015.) Bühler visualized these as three dimensions of a coordinate system that is centered on the speaker and the place and time of utterance. He used the term ‘jetzt-hier-ich origo’ (’now-here-I origo’) for the origin point of this coordinate system. 

(Bühler was massively influenced by the ‘phenomenological’ philosophy of Edmund Husserl. As Husserl attempted to build an epistemology based on the contents of subjective experience, so Bühler was fascinated by how grammars and lexicons encode subjective experience.)

I don’t know whether this is what you had in mind. I can’t think of any obvious connection to the study of modality. 

HTH! — Juergen

Bohnemeyer, J. 2015. Deixis. In J. D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 6. Oxford: Elsevier. 52–57.	
Bühler, K., 1934. Sprachtheorie (Language Theory). G Fischer, Jena.
Fillmore, C.J., 1997[1975]. Lectures on Deixis. CSLI Publications, Stanford, CA. Republication of Fillmore, C.J. Santa Cruz Lectures on Deixis 1971. Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington, IN (1975).

> On Sep 12, 2021, at 6:28 PM, TasakuTsunoda <tasakutsunoda at nifty.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
>  
>     Re: “I-now-here”
>  
>     Would anyone enlighten me, please?
>     I understand the concept of “I-now-here” plays an important role in studies of modality. Would anyone please given me advice on the following?
>  
>     (a) Who proposed “I-now-here” first? In what work?
>     (b) Are there any other works that discuss “I-now-here”?
>  
> Best wishes and thanking you in advance,
>  
> Tasaku Tsunoda
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-- 
Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo 

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