A Comparative Study Of Chinese And English Personal Social Deixis

Deixis is an important topic in pragmatic field. It mainly studies how touse language form to express context character and analyze utterance. Social deixis isthe structure or words which connect interpersonal relationship intimately in humancommunication. Social deixis in person is a common phenomenon in deixis. It is usedin any successfully verbal communication activities, Chinese and English are noexception. Social deixis in Chinese and English, both of them have the first personsocial deixis, the second person social deixis and the third person social deixis.This paper firstly compares Chinese with English on the first person social deixisand self-depreciatory, the second person social deixis and honorifics and the thirdperson social deixis in different occasions. Through the comparison, we knowalthough they both have three types of person deixis, they have similarities anddifferences in usage. In verbal communication, we should pay more attention to thedistinction. Then the paper explores deeply the factor of differences on social deixis inperson between Chinese and English, and searches for its motivation. ThroughChomsky’s UG and the theory of Principles and Parameters, we know social deixis inperson owe universality in two languages. The usage of social deixis in person is toserve verbal communication and make sure it realizes successfully. Although theyhave different expressions on social deixis in person, the effects and functions are thesame. Owing to different parameters involved in, such as culture parameter, contextparameter, social system parameter and so on, social deixis in person of Chinese andEnglish have their own characters. This paper primarily compares social deixis inperson in Chinese and English. The aim of this paper is to help us understandpurposes of both sides in social communication and how to use social deixis in personin two different languages correctly to communicate with others in daily life.