Deictic Conceptualisation of Space, Time and Person (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

This volume is a collection of articles which present the results of investigations into the grammar, semantics and pragmatics of deictic expressions in several languages. Special emphasis is placed on contrastive studies that take cognitive and cultural context into account. Both the empirical and theoretical studies focus on the ways in which spatial, temporal, personal and textual entities are conceptualised and referred to. The cognitive approach proves to be a promising perspective combining aspects of perception, reasoning and linguistic expression to reveal what seems to be at the very heart of deictics. Every language has a set of deictic expressions, most of which are frequently used and highly grammaticalized. Typical examples are demonstratives, personal pronouns, tenses and some verbs such as "come" and "go". this is a study of deictic conceptualisation of space, time and person. Edited By Friedrich Lenz. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.