Unit 6 Study Guide and Exercises Directions

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UNIT 7 DEIXIS AND DEFINITENESS
Entry requirements UTTERANCE (Unit 2), IDENTIFYING THE REFERENT OF A REFERRING
EXPRESSION and UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE (Unit 6). If you feel familiar
with these ideas, take the entry test below. If not, review the appropriate
units.
Entry test (1) Is an utterance tied to a particular time and place?
Yes / No
(2) Is a sentence tied to a particular time and place?
Yes / No
(3) Circle the referring expressions in the following utterance: ‘Neil
Armstrong was the 
first man on the Moon and became a hero’
(4) Who does ‘I’ refer to in the following utterance? ‘I will never speak to
you again’
..........................................................................................................................
(5) When a speaker says to someone, ‘A man from Dundee stole 
my wallet’, would he usually be assuming that the hearer will 
bring to mind a particular man from Dundee and be able to 
IDENTIFY him by associating him with facts already known 
about him?
Yes / No
(6) As question (5), but with the utterance, ‘The man from 
Dundee stole my wallet’.
Yes / No
(7) Can a universe of discourse be partly 
fictitious?
Yes / No
(8) If perfect communication is to take place between speaker 
and hearer on any topic, is it necessary that they share the 
same universe of discourse?
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) Yes (2) No (3) ‘Neil Armstrong’, ‘the 
first man on the moon’ (4) the 
speaker of the utterance (5) No, not usually (6) Yes (7) Yes (8) Yes
If you got less than 7 out of 8 correct, review the relevant unit. Otherwise,
continue to the introduction.
Introduction Most words mean what they mean regardless of who uses them, and when
and where they are used. Indeed this is exactly why words are so useful. Only
if we assign a (fairly) constant interpretation to a word such as man, for
example, can we have a coherent conversation about men. Nevertheless, all

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From reference . . .
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languages do contain small sets of words whose meanings vary systematically
according to who uses them, and where and when they are used. These words
are called deictic words: the general phenomenon of their occurrence is
called deixis. The word deixis is from a Greek word meaning pointing.
Definition 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.
Example The 
first person singular pronoun I is deictic. When Ben Heasley says ‘I’ve
lost the contract’, the word I here refers to Ben Heasley. When Penny Carter
says ‘I’ll send you another one’, the I here refers to Penny Carter.
Practice (1) If Wyatt Earp meets Doc Holliday in Dodge City and says, ‘This town
ain’t big enough for the both of us’, what does this town refer to?
..........................................................................................................................
(2) If a television news reporter, speaking in Fresno, California, says, ‘This
town was shaken by a major earth tremor at 5 a.m. today’, what does this
town refer to?
..........................................................................................................................
(3) In general, what clue to the identity of the referent of a referring
expression is given by the inclusion of the demonstrative word this?
Formulate your reply carefully, mentioning the notion ‘utterance’.
..........................................................................................................................
(4) If, on November 3rd 2005, I say, ‘Everything seemed to go wrong
yesterday’, what day am I picking out by the word yesterday?
..........................................................................................................................
(5) If, on May 4th 2005, my daughter says to me, ‘Yesterday wasn’t my
birthday’, what day is being picked out by the word yesterday?
..........................................................................................................................
(6) To summarize in a general statement, what day does yesterday
refer to?
..........................................................................................................................
Feedback
(1) Dodge City (2) Fresno, California (3) A referring expression modi
fied
by this refers to an entity (place, person, thing etc.) at or near the actual
place of the utterance in which it is used. (4) November 2nd 2005 (5) May
3rd 2005 (6) Yesterday refers to the day before the day of the utterance in
which it is used.
Comment These exercises show that the words this and yesterday are deictic.

U N I T   7
Deixis and definiteness
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Practice Are the following words deictic?
(1) here
Yes / No
(2) Wednesday
Yes / No
(3) place
Yes / No
(4) today
Yes / No
(5) you
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) Yes (2) No (3) No (4) Yes (5) Yes. (The referent of you is the addressee(s) 
of the utterance in which it is used and is therefore dependent upon the

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