| The phenomenon of deixis is universal in all languages. Since language is featured by subjectivity, the general and specific characteristics of deictic words can only be displayed through comparison and contrast between languages. Scholars home and abroad have realized that the selection of deictic words in both spoken and written discourses is influenced by the psychological distance of the speaker/writer towards what he/she talks about. In order to find the similarities and differences of deixis in English and Chinese languages, and how psychological distance influences the use of deixis in both languages, the author firstly defines deixis, presents the egocentricity of deixis, discusses the classification and functions of deixis, and explains psychological distance. Then she elaborates the previous studies onè¿™/é‚£and this/that respectively and contrastive studies between them. Finally, the present study, based on the parallel corpora (Wei Cheng by Ch'ien Chung-shu and its English version Fortress Besieged by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao; Vanity Fair by William Thackeray and its Chinese version Ming Li Chang by Yang Bi), is conducted in a comparative/contrastive way. The demonstrativesè¿™/é‚£and this/that used as place deixis, time deixis and discourse deixis are the focus of attention in the present study. In order to balance the length of the English and Chinese texts, the whole book of Wei Cheng and its English translation will be studied. For Vanity Fair, the first 29 of its 67 chapters, and their Chinese translation will be analyzed.Here are the major findings of the present study: The selection of deictic words in both English and Chinese narrative discourses is influenced by the psychological distance of the writer/translator towards what he/she talks about. The influence is twofold: If the psychological distance corresponds with the physical distance, it is the unmarked phenomenon of psychological distance; if the psychological distance lengthens or shortens the physical distance according to the speaker's evaluation and attitude, this is the marked phenomenon of psychological distance. According to the parallel corpora, the author of the original work and the translator may sometimes set the deictic center from different perspectives. In Chinese,è¿™is much more frequently used thané‚£in place deixis, time deixis and discourse deixis. However, in English, this is only a little more frequently used than that in discourse deixis while that is much more popular than this in both place deixis and time deixis. The Chinese language prefers to use proximal demonstratives to indicate psychological proximity. The author tries to explain these phenomena, and delineates the limitations of the present study and provides recommendations for further studies.
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