A Study Of The Unconventional Uses Of Person Deixis And Their Pragmatic Intentions

Deixis is a linguistic unit which plays an important role in daily communication. As an indispensable part of deixis, person deixis, an important linguistic phenomenon, is closely related to context. It could not be denied that person deixis has a direct influence on the communication and plays an important role when the speakers convey certain pragmatic meanings. Especially some unconventional uses of the person deixis could bring about some certain effects and convey some intentions which have great influence on the realization of the aims of the communication. The previous researches on the person deixis mainly focus on the contrastive study on the difference between English and Chinese person deixis and the simple listing of the uses of person deixis but without clear and systematic analysis about the unconventional uses and its pragmatic intentions. In this paper, the author tries to give a systematic description of the unconventional uses of person deixis. And then, this study intends to find out the pragmatic effects and intentions of the unconventional choices of the person deixis by analyzing the change of the pragmatic distance. First of all, a general introduction about the whole thesis is given. Secondly, we review the previous studies on the deixis and person deixis home and abroad. We found that there is some room for further research about the clear and systematic analysis about the unconventional uses and its pragmatic intentions. Thirdly, we analyze the unconventional uses of person deixis and its pragmatic intentions by the shift of the deixis from three perspectives:the shift of number, the shift of person and the extensive reference of person deixis.We found some conclusions:Firstly, in order to realize some certain intentions, the speaker will change the number of the person deixis by using the first person plural deixis for the first person singular deixis, the second person plural for the second person singular deixis, the first person singular deixis for the first person plural deixis, and the second person singular for the second person plural deixis. Secondly, the person can also be changed for the realization of the pragmatic intentions. The unconventional uses of person include (1) the first person plural deixis in place of the second person deixis;(2) the second person singular in place of the first person plural;(3) the second person in place of the third person;(4) the third person in place of the first person;(5) the third person in place of the second person;(6) indefinite pronouns in place of you. Thirdly, besides the shift of person deixis with clear reference, the person deixis also have the extensive uses. It makes no difference whether these extensive deixis exist or not. It is to draw the attention of the listener and the delete of it will not change the information, meaning and grammar. Finally, there must be reasons for the speakers to use the person deixis unconventionally. The unconventional use of the person deixis is one of the methods to convey some certain pragmatic intentions by enlarging the pragmatic distance or decreasing the distance to obtain the effects of emphasis or deemphasis which means that speakers could strengthen or ease the points he or she intends to express. By decreasing the distance or enlarging the pragmatic distance, the speaker intends to build an ease communicative environment and to deemphasize the points that he or she intends to express while sometimes the speakers shift the person deixis to the unconventional uses to strengthen the points to obtain the effects of emphasis.