Deixis

Jack Sidnell
Table of contents

Deixis (pronounced daɪksɪs) is the term used to refer to those linguistic elements which make interpretable reference only by virtue of an indexical connection to some aspect of the speech event. Typical examplars include for English, here–there, this–that, now–then, and I–you. Anderson and Keenan (1985: 259) write:

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price.

References

Abney, S.P.
1987The English Noun Phrase in its Sentential Aspect. Ph. Diss. MIT Press.
Agha, A.
1996Schema and superposition in spatial deixis. Anthropological Linguistics 38(4): 643–682.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Allen, W.S.
1956.Structure and system in the Abaza verbal complex. Transactions of the Philological Society: 127–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anderson, S. & E. Keenan
1985Deixis. In T. Shopen (ed.) Language Typology and Syntactic Description: Grammatical Categories and the Lexicon: 259–307. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bar-Hillel, Y.
1954Indexical Expressions. Mind 63: 359–379. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Benveniste, E.
1966Problèmes de linguistique generale. Gallimard.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Berlin, B. & P. Kay
1969Basic color terms: their universality and evolution. University of California Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Boas, F.
1947.Kwakiutl grammar, with a glossary of the suffixes. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 37: 203–377. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P.
1977Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, P. & S.C. Levinson
1993‘Uphill’ and ‘Downhill’ in Tzeltal. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 3(1): 46–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buhler, K.
1934Sprachtheorie. Fischer. [extracts in R. J. Jarvella & W. Klein (eds.) (1982) Speech, Place and Action. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.]  BoPGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J., R. Perkins & W. Pagliuca
1994The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Comrie, B.
1981Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W.
1972The Dyirbal Language of North Queensland. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1977A grammar of Yidin. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Danziger, E.
1994.Out of sight, out of mind: person, perception and function in Mopan Maya spatial deixis. Linguistics 32(4/5): 885–907.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Duranti, A.
1994From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village. University of California Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Enfield, N.
2003Demonstratives in space and interaction: data from Lao speakers and implications for semantic analysis. Language 79(1): 82–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fillmore, C.
1973.May we come in? Semiotica 9: 97–116.  BoPGoogle Scholar
1975Santa Cruz Lectures on Deixis. Indiana University Linguistics Club.  BoPGoogle Scholar
1982Toward a descriptive framework for spatial deixis. In R. Jarvella & W. Klein (eds.) Speech, Place and Action: Studies in Deixis and Related Topics: 31–60. Wiley.Google Scholar
Foley, W.
1986The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, M.
1979Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H.
1967Studies in Ethnomethodology. Prentice Hall.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, C.
1980Restarts, pauses, and the achievement of a state of mutual gaze at turn-beginning. Sociological Inquiry 50(3/4): 277–302. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
1986Gesture as a resource for the organization of mutual orientation. Semiotica 62(1/2): 29–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1987.Forgetfulness as an Interactive Resource. Social Psychology Quarterly 50(2): 115–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000.Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32: 1489–1522. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
2003Pointing as Situated Social Practice. In S. Kita (ed.): 217–241.Google Scholar
Goodwin, M.H.
1980Processes of mutual monitoring implicated in the production of description sequences. Sociological Inquiry 50: 303–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1990He-Said-She-Said: Talk as Social Organization among Black Children. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. & S.C. Levinson
(eds.) 1996Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Hanks, W.
1990Referential Practice: Language and Lived Space among the Maya. University of Chicago Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
1992The indexical ground of deictic reference. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds.) Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon: 43–76. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1996aLanguage and Communicative Practices. Westview Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
1996bLanguage form and communicative practices. In J. Gumperz & S. Levinson (eds.): 232–270.Google Scholar
Haviland, J.
1979Guugu Yimidhiir. In R.M.W. Dixon & B. Blake (eds.) Handbook of Australian Languages: 27–182. Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
1993Anchoring, iconicity and orientation in Guugu Yimithirr pointing gestures. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 3(1): 3–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996Projections, transpositions, and relativity. In J. Gumperz & S.C. Levinson (eds.): 271–323.Google Scholar
Jakobson, R.
1957Shifters, verbal categories, and the Russian verb. In Selected Works II: Word and Language. Mouton.Google Scholar
Josephs, L.S.
1975Paluan Reference Grammar. University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Kant, I.
1991[1768]Von dem ersten Grunde des Unterschiedes der Gegenden im Raume [On the first ground of distinction of regions of space]. In J. Van Cleeve & R.E. Frederick (trans./eds.) Philosophy of Right and Left: Incongruent Counterparts and the Nature of Space: 27–34. Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, D.
1989Demonstratives. In J. Almog, J. Perry & H. Wettstein (eds.) Themes from Kaplan: 481–614. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kataoka, K.
1998Gravity or levity: Vertical space in Japanese rock climbing instructions. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8(2): 222–248. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Kita, S.
(ed.) 2003Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Erlbaum.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Kristeva, J.
1971Du sujet en linguistique. In J. Kristeva (ed.) Epistemologie de la linguistique: 107–126. Didier & Larousse.Google Scholar
Keating, E.
1994Language, gender, rank and social space: Honorifics in Pohnpei, Micronesia. Cultural Performances: Proceeding of the third Berkeley Women and Language Conference: 367–377. Berkeley Women and Language PressGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S.C.
1983Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1992Primer for the field investigation of spatial description and conception. Pragmatics 2(1): 5–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994Deixis. In R.E. Asher (ed.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, vol.2: 853–57. Pergamon.Google Scholar
1996aFrames of reference and Molyneux’s question: cross-linguistic evidence. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, L. Nadel & M. Garrett (eds.) Language and Space: 109–169. MIT Press.Google Scholar
1996bLanguage and Space. Annual Review of Anthropology 25: 353–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000Presumptive meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature. MIT Press.Google Scholar
2004Deixis. In L.R. Horn & G. Ward (eds.) The Handbook of Pragmatics: 97–121. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Levinson, S.C. & P. Brown
1994Immanuel Kant among the Tenejapans: anthropology as empirical philosophy. Ethos 22(1): 3–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lyons, C.
1999Definiteness. Cambridge University Press. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Lyons, J.
1977Semantics, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
1982Deixis and subjectivity: Loquor, ergo sum? In R.J. Jarvella & W. Klein (eds.) Speech, Place and Action: 101–124. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Maynard, D.
2003Bad news, good news: conversational order in everyday talk and clinical settings. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mihalic, F.
1957Grammar and dictionary of Neo-Melanesian. Mission Press.Google Scholar
Montague, R.
1974Pragmatics. In R.H. Thomason (ed.) Formal Philosophy. Yale University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Moore, H.
1986Space, Text and Gender: An Anthropological Study of the Marakwet of Kenya. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mufwene, S.
1986Notes on durative constructions in Jamaican and Guyanese Creoles. In M. Görlach & J. Holm (eds.) Varieties of English Around the World: Focus on the Caribbean: 162–187. Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murane, E.
1974Daga grammar, from morpheme to discourse. Summer Institute of Linguistics of the University of Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Ochs, E.
1988Culture and Language Development: Language Acquisition and Language Socialization in a Samoan Village. Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Parmentier, R.J.
1994Peirce divested for nonitiates. In Signs in society: studies in semiotic anthropology. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Peirce, C.S.
1955/1940 In J. Buchler (ed.) Philosophical Writings of Peirce: Selected Writings. Dover.Google Scholar
Platt, M.
1986Social norms and lexical acquisition: A study of deictic verbs in Samoan child language. In B. Schieffelin & E. Ochs (eds.) Language Socialization Across Cultures: 127–152. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, H.
1975The Meaning of ‘Meaning’. In K. Gunderson (ed.) Language, Mind and Knowledge. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7: 131–193. University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Radford, A.
1997Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist Approach. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rehg, K.L.
1981Ponapean Reference Grammar. University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Sacks, H. & E. Schegloff & G. Jefferson
1974A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50: 696–735. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E.
1972Notes on a conversational practice: Formulating place. In D. Sudnow (ed.) Studies in Social Interaction: 75–119. Free Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Sherzer, J.
1973.Verbal and non-verbal deixis: The pointed lip gesture among the San Blas Cuna. Language in Society 2: 117–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, J.
1997Elicitations as a resource for organizing social and spatial location in an Indo-Guyanese Village. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7(2): 143–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1998aGender, Space and Linguistic Practice in an Indo-Guyanese Village. Ph. Diss. University of Toronto.Google Scholar
1998bCollaboration and contestation in a dispute about space in an Indo-Guyanese Village. Pragmatics 8(3): 315–338. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M.
1976Shifters, verbal categories and cultural description. In K. Basso & H. Selby (eds.). Meaning in Anthropology: 11–57School of American Research.Google Scholar
1993Metapragmatic discourse and metapragmatic function. In J. Lucy (ed.) Reflexive Language: Reported Speech and Metaprgamatics: 33–58. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Story, G.L. & C.M. Naish
1973Tlingit Verb Dictionary. University of Alaska.Google Scholar
Tanz, C.
1980Studies in the acquisition of deictic terms. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P.
1990The Dialects of England. Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Wales, R.
1986Deixis. In P. Fletcher & M. Garman (eds.). Language Acquisition, 2nd edition: 401–428. Cambridge University Press.  BoP DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weinreich, U.
1963On the semantic structure of language. In J. Greenberg (ed.) Universals of Language: 114–171. MIT press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Welmers, W.E.
1973African Language Structures. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Whorf, B.L.
1941 In J.B. Carroll (ed.) Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. MIT Press.Google Scholar