This paper examines and compares the functions of the French and Russian binary system of the deictic presentatives VOICI/VOILA and VOT/VON, commonly described on the basis of the + or -proximal. In actual usage, French and Russian differ in which member of the pair has been marked -the other being unmarked-, a choice based on the object's proximity to the deictic center. Moreover, an analysis of the pairs' similar presentative and discourse functions explains the relationship between the spatial-presentative functions and the metaphorical spatialization of linguistic content.