’n Ondersoek na die identifisering van deiktiese ruimte in die prosa

• Main Author: J. Anker
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: AOSIS 2003-08-01
• Series: Literator
• Subjects: AH De Vries; Die Gusooi; Deixis; Deictic Context; Deictic Context As Structure In Prose; Text World
• Online Access: https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/284

The role and function of deictic context in a prose text This article examines the nature and function of deictics in a prose text. By referring to different theories of pragmatics and literature, the nature of communication in literary texts and the role that deixis plays in these texts become evident. In a prose text a process of communication exists in which the utterance produced by the speaker (author) is interpreted by a hearer (reader). The reader reconstructs a context for this communication by the interpretation of the speaker’s references to person, place and time – the deictic elements. The reader determines the deictic context in a text by defining and interpreting the communication of the abstract author, the different speaker’s references to persons, space and time and by interpreting the implications in the linguistic utterance. In this way a deictic context is formed in the mind of the reader which forms the basis for his understanding of the message in the text.