Analysis Of The Constitution And Function Of Mandarin Time Deixis

Deixis is one of the important pragmatic subjects. As a means of time expressions, time deixis plays an important role in the human communicaiton, and it is also an important category of deixis. This paper makes a reseach on the constitution of time deixis by collecting,counting and analyzing the corpora of mandarin time deixis from the prospective of pragmatics. We argue that the mandarin time deixis is mainly constituted by the use of the following elements:time morpheme,unit of time,deixis word,sequential morpheme and directional word,some special verbs and adjectives. Part of adverbs of time can also be used as time deixis. These elements are constituted by some certain rules rather than by random combination.Besides, this research explores and categorises the functions of time deixis embodied in syntax, pragmatics and communication. The writer hopes this study will help people have a better understanding of mandarin time deixis, and it will also have a positive effect on the teaching of mandarin time deixis.