Spatial Deixis Types of Deixis

2. Spatial Deixis

Spatial deixis is deixis which indicates the location of some spaces between the speaker and the listener. Spatial deixis is also known as place deixis. According to Yule, spatial deixis concerns to the concept of distance. 37 In other word, spatial deixis terms indicate the relative location of people and things here, there. Lyons also states that place or spatial deixis concerns with the specification of location relative to anchorage points in the speech events. The important of location specification in general can be gauged from the fact that three seem to be basic ways of referring to objects by describing or naming them, on the one hand, and by locating them on the other. 38 Spatial deixis is where the relative location of people and things is being indicated. Spatial deixis manifests itself principally in the form of locative adverbs like here and there, and demonstrative adjective or determiners like this and that. 39 Place deixis deals with proximal close to speaker or distal close to addressee dimension. The term here means something like “region relatively close the speaker”, and there means “relatively distant from the speaker”. It concerns with the spatial locations relevant to the utterance. However, spatial deixis is not only about the distance or the location, but also the movement or motion happened either toward or away from the speaker. Moreover, the 37 George Yule., op.cit, p. 12. 38 John Lyons., op.cit, p. 650. 39 D. Alan Cruse. Meaning in Language: An Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p.320. determination of the location in spatial deixis is not only limited in here and there, but also specific location, such as in the bedroom, in London, and soon. 40 For example: I‟m glad we moved here, I was melting over there. 41 The deictic expressions „here‟ and „there‟ pick out places according to their proximity to the location of the speaker. If the speaker moves, the interpretation of the deictic expressions will change. When the speaker and the addressee in example above have moved, they can call the shade here and their original place there. 42 However, to analyze the reference of here, for example, we also should consider the deictic center. The word „here‟ can be interpreted as „near to you‟, or „near to me‟, or „not near to either you or me‟. The third interpretation means that there is a third person included in the conversation.

3. Temporal Deixis