Topic 2

Temporal ans spatial deixis

For Morris (1946/1970), semantics is a field dealing dealing wits relations of signs to their meanings or to the objects (referents) to which the signs can be related, respectively. However, as Lyons (1977, p. 117)  mentioned, when observing a natural language, drawing a strict line between semantics, syntax and pragmatics is often uncertain. Even though the bi-lateral conception of sign has been widely accepted, it is necessary to realize that in communication a sign functions as a unitary entity and it is its momentary, autonomous context dependent reference which is essential for its interpretation. Mutual relations of signs (i.e., in Morris´s definition, syntax) can be manifested both by grammar morphemes (endings) and by morphemes of lexical nature (conjunctions, primary and secondary prepositions). Other lexical items, indices, represent signs with specific features: Their combinatorial potential towards other signs is not limited but their semantics is given sheerly by their reference in a current context, i.e. pragmatically. To use them descriptively (as non-indices) is possible only in specific contexts. Also, the primary functions of demonstratives and particles are pragmatic, despite the fact that their lexical semantics is not entirely empty. In addition to that, their syntactic potential is limited.  The specifics of expressing temporal meanings have already been mentioned – the gramemes with temporal meanings have a reference, therefore they are close to indices. But, since the temporal meanings in compound verbal forms are distributed among several constituents (including auxiliaries jsem, jsa, budu carrying only temporal meaning) the relation of grammar, semantic and pragmatic elements here gives an even more complicated picture.   

    On the other hand, a syntactic relation of two constituents can be determined pragmatically and it is an individual language-dependent feature whether the relation will or will not be manifested in grammar. In Czech, the gender meaning of a pronominal subject in the 1st and in the 2nd pers. sg. is pragmatic (contextual) and is “invisible“ for morphology; so the congruent form of the predicate in the past tense (já jsem přišla/přišla jsem - F, ty jsi přišel/ přišel jsi - M) ensuring the reference identification of speaker and addressee is claimed by pragmatic factors only.   

    Functioning of language seen in the pragmatic perspective concerns every linguistic entity – in usage any expression obtains its pragmatic dimension starting from marked articulation of certain phones (bringing into interpretation connotations linked to some sub/codes), the role of intonation differentiating illocutions, roles of indices, demonstratives, etc. The very reason why to differ a semantic and a pragmatic view of language phenomena is the impossibility to account for the full meaning of a sentence using only the meanings of its constituents. Its not only indices, demonstratives and ambiguous expressions or constructions which have to be anchored pragmatically, it is also the issue of all kinds of secondary or tertiary meanings/interpretations based on speakers´ extra-linguistic knowledge. It is necessary to keep in mind, though, that a sentence can be ambiguous but its use (an utterance-event) is not (if it was not meant like that purposefully) because the communicative situation/event provides the addresse with pragmatic clues giving him/her a chance for full-fleshed interpretation. It is then a matter of the adopted theoretical stance what status and extension the pragmatic clues of interpretation are given.

Reference and deixis, deixis being defined as refering not by the means of definite description or proper names but by the means of an expression the main feature of which is pointing to the area / domain within which the entity in question (object of reference) can be found by the addressee. Deictic expressions (deictics)  are “pointers“,  their lexical semantics (sign properties) can be defined only in the relation to the entity to which it regres (zde/here, zítra/tomorrow). Special sub-chapters are devoted to situational deixis (including spatial temporal, personal and social deixis) as well as the textual deixis. Specifics of Czech in this domain can be seen mainly in the area of referring to time and space, expressing of time being almost fully grammaticalized and spatial meanings being expressed by several means (verbal prefixes, prepositions and adverbial expressions) simultaneously. As for temporal meanings, Reichenbach´s (1947) tense decomposition is used (also for relative tense meanings in complex sentences). The description of spatial deixis is based on three elementary concepts/terms origo, deictic center and point of reference and their relations. The structure of spatial descriptions (in most of the languages of various types) is generally based on the object to be located (O, or Figure F) and the object with respect to which the location of O is specified – the (back)ground G. Their configurations can be defined as topological (including meanings “at“, “in“ or “on“ or they involve three main types of the frames of reference: intrinsic, relative and absolute. The main domain of spatial deixis is the relative frame of reference which is ternary because it always includes the viewer and his perspective; the location of O in relation to G depends on the location of the viewer - speaker (or addressee, or another person or point involved) –  před stromem or za stromem  (“in front“ or “behind the tree trunk“) depends on the position of the viewer/speaker, or, like in ta kniha na polici po tvé levé ruce (“the book on the shelf at your left hand“), on the position od the addressee. The third basic frame of reference is absolute, using parameters „north, south, east, west“, i. e. conventionalized geographical coordinates. Even in this frame a high evel of relativity can be seen, e. g. ,  Praha ležína východ od Berlína, ale na západod Vídně (“Prague is located east from Berlin but west from Vienna“), which means that for the precise location, an elaborated system of geographical coordinates has to be employed.

Within textual deixis, the information structure of a text is presented, using the term “object of speech“ – its identity within a text is ensured by the speaker´s act of reference relying on the stock of shared knowledge between speaker and addressee.

Consider a full interpretation of a sentence

May we come in?

Consider it with a full interpretation of a Czech sentence

Můžeme jít dál?

Hint: Charles Fillmore: Lectures on Deixis. 1971/1997, Stanford: CSLI Publications (https://www.scribd.com/document/188043670/Fillmore-Lectures-on-Deixis-1971)