Personal, Spatial, and Temporal Deictic Expressions Used in David Cameron’s Speech on EU Referendum 2016

Hussein H. Mayuuf, Haider Mohammed Hameed
University of Babylon, Iraq

ABSTRACT

This study deals with deixis. Deixis /da_ks_s/ is a Greek word refers to ‘pointing at’. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is static but their denotational meaning is dependent on the time, place, and the speaker in certain situation, as in ‘I’ll put this here’ or ‘what’s that?’.  These sentences are better understood when the context in which they are spoken is known because the references for this, here and that are unknown when out of context. The present study attempts to detect the use of the personal, temporal and spatial deictic expressions as used in David Cameron’s Speech on the EU referendum on May 9, 2016. The study attempts to find out what is meant by deixis? what is the main function of deictic expressions? what type of deixis does David Cameron use in his speech? Section one covers the introduction, the aims of the study, the hypotheses, the procedure and the limits. Section two encompasses a theoretical background and clarifying the concept of deixis, its types: personal deixis, spatial deixis and temporal deixis. Section Three covers data analysis. Section Four includes the arrived at conclusions. The study ends with a list of bibliography.

KEYWORDS

deixis, spatial deixis, temporal, Cameron, speech

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