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прагматика и медиа дискурс / 语用学关键概念 Key Notions for Pragmatics (2009)

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Dehds 121

Hanks notes that there are two main sutface shapes in which deictic constructions occur:continuousanddiscontinuous.Examplesin 3aillustratecontinuousconstructions in whichTD directly follows the ID. Examples in 3b illustrate discontinuousdeictics.

(3)a. (i) he!'lei a?

 

OS'l"E\'

ro

 

 

 

 

 

'I!ere it is (presenting).'

 

 

(ii)

¢'aah

 

tc!'/el

o'l

 

 

 

Vb-IMYER

OLOC '1'1>

 

 

 

'Put it there.'

 

 

 

b. (i)

hf/el

a

maaskab'

a'l

 

 

OSTP.V

2nd

N

 

1'0

 

 

'I-Iere's ,-our machete (presenting).'

 

(ii)

¢'aah

 

tf/

ach

kool*n

o?

 

Vb-lMPHk

OLl)C PRJ!P

N

TO

'Put it there m (the) kitchen.'

These examples also illustrate another interesting characteristic of Maya deictics. In the first two examples the deictic element is the only expressed constituent. In contrast, in the next two examples, deictics are elaborated by other lexical material. Hanks suggests that this reflects a basic distinction between pronominal. proloca· tive and prosentential (etc.) and adnominal, adlocative and adsentential uses of the same forms. t\•fost Maya deictics may be used in either pro-X or ad-X functions {see Hanks 1990: 17). Explaining his use ofthe terminology 10 and To. Hanks w-rites that tos "always occur in initial position of the constituent for which they are marked, be it Sentence. the Noun Phrase. or various Circumstantial adverbial phrases, and they always precede Tos, even when the two parts are discontinuous. Tr>s, on the other hand. always occur in final position in the sentence or topic phrase" (Hanks 1990: 17). This is easilyillustratedbysentences in which son1econstituent hasunder­ gone focusing or some other form ofmovement. Hanks provides the example given below as {4).

(4) tc?

tch

ko6b'cn

ku¢'a'lab'al

o·/

OLOC

l'kl!t>

N

AlJX-3rd-Vb

ro

''Then: in (the) kitchen (is where) it' put."

In thisexamplethe locativephrase has undergone focusing and the m basehas moved with it. The TO, however, remains in sentence final position.

English may seem to be a relatively simple case in relation to the l\•fayan system discussed by Hanks. There are nevertheless some outstanding and problematic issues which await full investigation. The first perhaps revolves around the categorial status

12.2.JclckSldnell

of demonstrative tltisltlfat. When they are not functioning as pronouns (e.g.• ''T don't really like that.") they are typically labeled demonstrative adjectives (see for instance Anderson and Keenan 1985: 279). However, on syntactic grounds the items in ques­

tion are parallel to determiners and articles (a, the etc.) . Thus note the examples in (5).

{5)

a.

 

b.

[Thi I that I a / the red housc)0p. (0 red housclrw

On the basi. of distributional facts it would seem that tltis/tlult are DI!T elements (see the recent account of these issues in L}rons 1999). There are other unresolved issues with regard to the morpho syntax of English deixis. These problemsare particularly obviou when we begin to lookat non-standard varieties ofEnglish and English-lexified creoles.5 ln Guyanese Creole, tJ\e equivalents ofEnglish this/that and l ere/tllere are dis/da and yalde respectively. (n addition to the functional possibilities known frorn standard English varieties, GC deictics occur in post posed positions. Examples {6) illustrate this.

(6)

a. b. c.

d.

yu 1100 dcrn piknu ells a drah· larkdcm naget ru lit

'You know thesechtldren (tlus) goon as ifthey don't get to cat.'

a mii prapatu dis an mi hozban prapati1°

 

'

'IL' mr propcrt} (thi.s) and mr husband propertr'

'

 

wa. dcm diS. dt il: a mad puopl man

 

'\"'/hat! These (this). These are mad people, man.'

sec.dis )'tl bai

 

'Sar-what! This (here) sur!'

 

In GC and in many other vaneties of English, deictics can occur post nominaUy (see for instance Trudgi11 ( 1990: 79}). Post posed deictics also co-occm with deictics in base position thus resulting m what Hanks calls for Maya, continuous shapes. The system of root and post po.ed deictic terms. showing possible combinations and apparent gaps, is illustrated in Table 2.

;.

It is unforunatc that veryltttlcsociolinguistic workondc1xis is available. English and probably

many other languages show a good deal of morphosyntactic and sodolingUJsttc vanation in the

grammarofdcuos.

6.

It is altcrnativdy possible to sec this as an c.-xample ofVP fronting with dis a!: an underl};ng

subject.

 

liP [D}J d1s)l I'0( VP ami prapatii)IJ

Delxi 125

ThePonapeansystem thusnicelyillustrates thesemanticandstructural parallelism that one often finds across a series ofdeictic verbs, demonstratives and locative adverbs. 1l1is parallel organzation can be taken as evidence that spatial deicticsdo form a natu­ ralclassin anygiven language(a point elaborated in Hanks 1990).

Languages that incorporate a (relative to addressee' parameter do not exhaust the possibilities here and we find further cross·linguistic variation in terms of the indexi­ cal ground ofdeictic reference. lhus some languages incorporate a thoroughly 'socio­ centric' term by which an object is identified as remote from the speech situation. An example ofsuch a language isTlingit (Story & Naish 1973). CiBemba take,c; thisone step further and inn·oduces more subtle distinctions for both relative-to•speaker and relative-to-addressee terms. 11\e following examples are from Welmers (1973: 286-287):

(13) U·no

'th1s(immediatelyadjacent to oron thespeaker)'

u-yu

'this (nearer the speaker than the addressee)'

u-yoo 'this (equallynearor rde\'ant to both)'

u-y6

'that (immediatelyadjacent to or on the addressrt)'

u-t>.a

'that (awa)· from buth)'

Finally,wefind languagesinwhichtheindexicalgroundforsomedeictics isconstituted by some geographical location rather than the speech act participants. I have already discussed the role that fixed geographical features may play in linguistic systems of spatial reckoning. In Dyribal, according to Dixon (1972)) deictic markers may occur suffixed to noun markers (e.g., determiners). While some ofthe markers instantiate a system ofrelative spatial reckoningbasedonthepositionofthespeaker,othersindicate location relativetogeographical features. Examples in ( 14) illustrate:

(14) bardi

'shortdistance downhill'

ba)·da

'medium distance downhill'

ba)'du

'longdistance downh1ll'

dari

'shortdistance uphill'

dara

'medium distance uphlll'

daru

'longdistance uphill'

With regard to the relational component we find a great deal ofcross linguistic varia­ tion. English speakers will be most familiar with the proximaVdistal contrast relation. Other languageswhich Anderson and Keenan (1985) label "distance oriented systems" introduce furtherdistinctionsalongUlissamedimension. Manydialects ofEnglish pre· serve the tripartite contrast between h re, tltere, yo1tder {including Guyanese Creole see Sidnell 1998a). Spanish has a similar tripartite contrast along a single dimension ofdistance from speaker: este, ese, aquel. Most languages seern to makeat least a basic distinction between proximate/distalorimmediate/distal in therelationalcomponent.7

7· Gcrmam diesldns isanotherexception here.

Delxls 127

(or some other phenomenal quality) is calculated relative to speaker but not addressee, the opposite is not true (in fuct no language..c;app-ear to op-erate in this way). Similar!) although many languages gran1maticalize a relational contrast along the horizontal but not (at least explicitly) the vertical plane) the reverse situation apparently does not exist TI1Us one might speculate that deictic terms observe similar universal constraints as have been demonstrated for color terms (Bertin & Kay 1969. see also \"/einreich 1 963).9

3. Formulating place: Deictics in interaction

When we turn to consider the place ofdeixis in human interaction, we find a rich and growing area of research. A central set of issues here concerns the way in which the grounding of deictic terms in the particulars of the speech event may be temporar· ily suspended. For instance in ''He said 'stay here while I get help!'" the value of here must be calculated relative not to the immediate event of speaking but in relation to the narrated event of speaking (See Jakobson 1957). These issues have been discus..c;ed extensively by Hanks ( 1990) and Haviland (1996) amongothers. The general complex· ity of deictic usage and interpretation is also attested in studies of acquisition. Thus both Tanz (1980) and Wale,c; (1986) show that deictic terms are acquired relatively late

Important issues which unfortunately tall beyond the &cope ofthe prc&ent paper arc patterns ofgrarnmaticalization,lexicalization and diachronic changeassociated asscciated with deixis. The etymology of manybasic demonstrative and locative deictic:s is somewhat obscure. English and its closest relatives (German) Middle High German. Old High German, Old J!risian. Middle Dutch) appear to havecognate forms ofhe1'e and rltt:Tl?. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that Goth hfl·derives from the pronominal&temlti-<this'butadmitsthatthenatureoftheformation isobscure. We have a dearer picture for the patterns ofgrammaticalization forwhich dcictics ser.•eas source lexemes. 1t is not uncommon for both locative copulas and imperfective, progressive or durative aspect markers to develop from the distal locativeadverb.'Ibis can beseen forinstance in a number ofcreole languagt"S with various lexical bases.for instance GuyaneseCreole (English lexical base):

Ramish

de

a

hous

Ramish

t.oc

PRF.P

house

..Ramish is nt home."

 

Ramish

de

a

ron

Ramish

,,sp

ASP

run

..Ramish is running:'

fn thesecond example the de in contemporary GC indicatesextendedduration so that Rnmi:>l1 a ron means "Ramish is: running (right now):' The relationship between locative adverbs and aspcctual markersinJamaicanandGu)·ancseCreolesisdiscussed inMufwcne(1986).Amoregeneraldiscussion ofthe lexicalsources ofprogressive grams can be found in Bybee, Pcrldns. Pagltuca (1994).

us JclckSidnell

presumably because they lack a stable referent - as people take turns talking. the referents ofdeictics such as lrere, tiJere, tlris, tluH change. While such pragmatic and cognitive complexitiesare doubtless relevant to theacquisition process, social factors may also be implicated. In a fascinating study ofthe acquisition ofdeictic verbs in a Samoan village, Platt (1986) showed that although the Samoan equivalent of deic· tic britg (agent-object-path) is semantically more complex than deictic come (agent­ path) the formerisacquired first. She attributed this tothe fact thatchildren, being low status individuals. are not expected to beckor'\ adults (a numberofethnographic stud· ieshaveshown that movement is associated with lower statusand a lack ofit isassoci­ ated with high status - see for instance Ochs 1988; Duranti 1994). However there is no expectation that children will not want and request objects usingthe Samoan verb for bri11g.

The study of deL\:is has undergone something of a rene\o\ral as researchers have begun to investigate naturally occurring data embedded in situated courses ofaction (Haviland 1996;Goodwin 1986, 1994, 1999a. 1999b; Hanks 1990). Such studieswereto some extent anticipated by the earlier work ofSchegloff. In his pioneering 1972 paper, ''Notes on aconversational practice: formulating place;'Schegloffargues that the useof a place formulation (including the deictic terms here and tiJere) involvec; both speaker and hearer in a series of analyses. In the first place, a place formulation involves the operations ofa location analysis. That is, in order to produce an intelligible place for· mulation,aspeakermustdoananalysisofthelocationofthe speakerand recipient(and associated possibilities for perceptual access, see Hanks 1996a). Demonstrativethis for instance suppose.s that a recipient may locate the object so designated and this turns out to have important implications for how it is used (see below and Goodwin 1986}. Furthermore. a place formulating expression may engender a membership analysis as certain place terms are appropriately used only by participants in a certain relation to oneanother (i.e., as co-n1embers ofthe category 'local'). Finall)'• Schegloffsuggests that anyplace formulation will be fittedtothe topic and the local relevanciesofanemergent andsequentiallyorganized course ofaction.

Consider the following example from a telephone conversation between two friends:

TCll

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

(b):

Pya:

Bus:

Pya:

Bus:

#28

I'jus c-can'tget going aheheh {0.2)

Ohyoudidn· you didn: hear thuh the newsdidju.=

=Vole were out there beforeTilanksgi\·ing. (.)

Oh, you were?

Yeah