DEIXIS AND DEFINITENESS

Deictic word =
1. I like studying semantics->I do,too.
2. If Doni is preparing to travel to the USA,her mother says : " you should bring warm
clothes,the weather is cold there ."
3. If a visitor coming back from Halong Bay says : " I tool many beautiful pictures there.
"
Definition
One which take same element of it's meaning from the situation ( the speaker,the
addressee,the time and the place ) of the utterance in which it is used.
The general phenomeon of it's occurence is called Deixis.
Some types of Deixis :
1. Personal Deixis : I,you,they,we,she,he
2. Demonstratives : This,that,these,those.
3. Spatial Deixis :, Here,there,etc.
4. Temporal Deixis : Yesterday,today, tomorrow,etc.

Some verbs have deictic ingredient :

Come,take,bring,go,etc.
Example : "Go to the school." ( Speaker is not at the school )
Tenses are also regardrd as deictic :
Example : "I graduated from high school in 2004. " ( This utterance can be Made jn or after
the year 2004 ).
In reported speech,deictic words in original utterance here to be changed to preserve
the original references.
Example : " Joko said,"I won lottery yesterday." ( Joko said he had won lottery the day before
).
Can you point out which words are deictic?
" I was there yesterday,"
I was : personal
There : spatial
Yesterday : temporal

DEFINITENESS
Definition : A feature of noun lhtase selected by the speaker to convey his assumption that
the hearer Will be able to indentift the referent of the noun phrase .
Example :
● The sun,The star ,The moon = definite . Because there are only one sun,one
star,one moon in the content.
● I was in bed when the phone in my house is rang. The phone is definite.
Three main types of definite noun phrase in english
1. Proper name = Joko,Joni,Jono
2. Personal pronouns = He,she,it
3. Phrase introduced by a definite determine = this,that,the,those,these,my,his,...
It follow from definition of definiteness all definite noun phrases are referring
Expressions
- However not every noun phrase using the so-called "definite article" the is
necessarily semanticslly definite.
 Example : In genetic sentences = The whole is mammal.
Definiteness contributes to truth of a sentence.