#deictics

[messoamerica]

ArchaeoLit: Maya Personal References

Fun fact: teaching three university courses and applying for Ph.D. programs while working two other jobs is fairly exhausting. Thank goodness we get a day off to commemorate the murderous rampage of a white man who literally accomplished nothing he set out to. While you’re enjoying the break, here’s an interesting epigraphic article about the use of first and second person reference in Maya glyphs.

The interpretation of deixis in language is heavily context-dependent. In spoken language, the addressee(s) have the context of an utterance to aid in its interpretation. In writing, however, language can become separated from both its creator and the context of its creation. This article investigates the use of certain deictics—first and second person markers—in ancient Maya hieroglyphics (circa AD 250–900). The temporal and cultural gap that separates modern language scholars from the creators of these texts means that much of the larger cultural context in which these texts would have been interpreted has been lost. An analysis of the way in which first and second person reference was framed and deployed in Maya hieroglyphs, even when identifying the intended referent proves impossible, provides insights concerning how people recontextualize textual language and how the authors of these texts adapted the form of their messages in response to the modality used.

While “Reading in Context: The Interpretation of Personal Reference in Ancient MayaHieroglyphic Texts” by Law et al. is fairly detailed in it’s epigraphic information, it also touches on the relationship between a text and its reader and may still be a fun read for those of you not very interested in epigraphy. Read the full article here!

[talkingknots-blog]

i really like paintings where people are pointing at things or up at the sky/ground

[linguisticious-blog]

Deixis am Phantasma

Today I want to tell you about a particular kind of deixis called Deixis am Phantasma. But first of all, what is deixis? The word deixis comes from the ancient  Greek word δείξις (deixis) meaning display, demonstration, or reference, and in Linguistics it can be described as it follows: "the function of pointing or specifying from the perspective of a participant in an act of speech or writing; aspects of a communication whose interpretation depends on knowledge of the context in which the communication occurs." (source)

There and here are space deictics; Today, before, and tomorrow are time deictics;

You and He are personal deictics, and so go on.

(source) Among these deictics (the list I have made is not complete, for further information, read this from page 10), scholars found a particular kind of deixis, called deixis am Phantasma. 'Am Phantasma' (Germ.) means 'to the ghost', so a literal translation of this expression would be 'pointing at a ghost'. Ironically, the meaning of this expression is not as mystical as it seems. When speakers use a deixis am Phantasma they are simply pointing at something that is not there while they utter a sentence, behaving like if it was there, helped by hand gestures. By instance, if somebody is asking you for directions, you are likely to say something like "Turn left and you'll find a red building. Then to your left you'll see the shop", this by moving your hands, pointing to your left, like if the building was there, in your visual field.

[lingcod]

Our professor's young child refers to herself as 'you' and her mother as 'I'. It's absolutely adorable. "I read you a book?" "No, I read you a book.  ...wait."