Muchamad Adam Basori, M.A. TESOL
15 October 2011
Meeting Unit 5
A Deictic word
A DEICTIC word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the context or situation (i.e. the speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used.
‘demonstratives’ (deictic words) secara spesifik menunjuk kepada seseorang, sesuatu, waktu dan tempat.
Deictic Types
Person Deixis è kita (saya dan anda); kami (saya dan dia) e.g. Kepada Bapak Gubernur: Kami persilahkan waktu dan tempatnya; anda {one or more referred persons} the word ‘anda’ shows inclusive or exclusive use. E.g. Anda (inclusive) mengerti tentang cerita anak tetangga itu; Anda (exclusive) seharusnya tidak menyampaikan informasi rahasia itu; Saya seharusnya tidak berbicara kepada anda (refers to someone or a specific referent (inclusive), but a speaker talks to more than one persons (exclusive)) yang bertanya sesuatu di luar topik pembicaraan.
Place Deixis è Silahkan berjalan lurus di jalan ini hingga menemukan pertigaan dan ambil ke arah kanan. Anda akan menemukan toko itu di sini berada di sebelah kiri anda.
It shows that sebelah kiri anda denotes an easy reference of toko to be identified by a listener.
Additionally, Place Deixis can be used in space. E.g. Apa rumahmu masih jauh? Oh, tidak. Sudah dekat di balik bukit itu. ‘rumahmu’ and ‘di balik bukit itu’ indicate a long distance although a speaker answers ‘dekat’.
Time Deixis è e.g. kemarin (yesterday)
à Aku datang kemarin. (eight months ago; this was uttered in Dzulqo’dah)
à Oya? Lho kamu koq tidak beritau aku? Mampir dong…sekadar main-main aja ke tempatku.
à Maaf aku terlalu disibukan mengurus ini itu.
à Emangnya datengnya bulan Syawal kemarin? (last month confirmed)
à Oh, enggak bulan Januari tahun ini.
à Mmhmm….
Time Deixis also indicates tense system in English, which tells us a specific time of an utterance and causes to change verb forms. But, Bahasa Indonesia does not have this Time Deixis indication that changes verb forms. Bahasa is only indicated by adverbs: kemarin, lusa, besok, sekarang, etc.
à ‘Kemarin pulangnya agak malem’ (He went home late last night.)
Deictic Centre
The use of sebelah kiri anda and sebelah kanan anda is deictic since the same location is being indicated by two different descriptions and can only be determined by knowing the context – in this case, the direction in which the addressee is facing. But sebelah kiri anda and sebelah kanan anda can be understood differently if the spatial deictic centre has shifted from the unmarked norm (the location of the speaker) to a marked alternative (the location of the addressee).
So far, deictic terms have been referring expressions, like you, here, and today, or modifiers which can be used with referring expressions, like the demonstrative this.
Such deictic terms help the hearer to identify the referent of a referring expression through its spatial or temporal relationship with the situation of utterance.
Hearers need to immediately interpret meaning conveyed by deictic words. They MUST refer to definite reference in order that they understand the meaning of an utterance.
Definiteness
DEFINITENESS is a feature of a noun phrase selected by a speaker to convey his assumption that the hearer will be able to identify the referent of the noun phrase, usually because it is the only thing of its kind in the context of the utterance, or because it is unique in the universe of discourse.
E.g. the (‘sesuatu’ yang telah jelas asal, waktu dan tempatnya)
We can summarize that today topic has two main points:
The definiteness of a referring expression gives the hearer a clue in identifying its referent.
We assume that knowledge of the identity (in this case of you), the spatial location (in this case of here) and the temporal location (in this case of yesterday) of the speaker in order to identify referents in relation to this point of origin.
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