‘Unspecific Deixis’ in a Southern African English Context
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Date
2008
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Publisher
National University of Lesotho: Faculty of Humanities
Abstract
‘Africanisms’ are commonly defined as characteristics of African Second Language
English usage on a range of levels of linguistic analysis, that is, in terms of
Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Lexis and Semantics, Pragmatics
and Usage, and Register. So far, most studies have concentrated on the more
structural aspects of this phenomenon (phonological, morphological, and syntactic
features). However, what is much more far-reaching in terms of its communicative
impact is the way people, places and events are referred to, or verbally pointed to
(deixis). ‘Deixis’ refers to linguistic strategies that place utterances in space and
time, in relation to the speaker. Deictic expressions include words like here and
there, now and then, first and second person pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and
tense.
This paper will focus on pragmatic and usage-related features of Southern
African English communicative behaviour which differ from equivalent linguistic
behaviour by speakers of other varieties of English. In this context, it will discuss
and analyse the use of deictic expressions in actual face-to-face interactions as a
feature of African English. In order to investigate this ‘unspecific deixis’, examples
from actual conversations, formal meetings and television interviews will be
analysed.