Proximal And Distal Deixis In Spoken English

The origin of "deixis" is deiktikos (deictic) in Greek, meaning "pointing or showing", which reflects the core function of deixis. Since the Greek period, the phenomenon of deixis has been of considerable interest to philosophers and become an important subject of study in philosophy. In recent years, many studies on deixis have been conducted from the linguistic point of view. The choice between proximal and distal deixis is one of the questionable subjects. Traditional accounts of deixis could not provide a convincing and comprehensive explanation for underlying motivating factors for the choice between demonstratives this and that. The proximal vs. distal distinction underlying traditional simple discussions of demonstrative reference is disputable and the use of this and that in particular does not appear to account for the variety of functions and parameters.This paper analyzes and compares different parameters that affect the choice between proximal and distal deixis this and that in spoken English. Contrary to the traditional description of distinction between demonstratives this and that based on relative distance, the analysis and comparison of the data reveal that some additional factors, such as the referent, the speaker's orientation, the relationship between speaker and addressee and the speaker's control would affect the choice between proximal and distal deixis. The paper proposes that these factors are all crucial for an analysis which accounts for speaker's choice of demonstrative forms in spoken English. It will be shown through the discussion of their various distributional tendencies and the underlying factors motivating speaker's choice by the analysis of the data. And the most significant and crucial contribution to the field of demonstrative research is the claim that the primary parameter is not relative distance, as is assumed in the traditional studies, but the speaker's control in spoken English.Searching into the classification, pragmatic properties and functions of the two demonstratives this and that will help learners not only to know about them, but to improve their use in the communication between people.