Place Deixis

Place deixis is also described as spatial deixis, where the relative location of people and things is being indicated. Place deixis or spatial deixis usually expressed in this, these, there, here, that, and those. Place deixis can be described along many of the same parameters that apply to the time deixis. Therefore, those references to place can be absolute or relational in nature. Absolute references to place locate an object or person in a specific longitude and latitude, while relational references locate people and place in terms of each other and the speaker (Cummings 2005, p.26).

Levinson (1983, p.79) stated that place or space deixis concerns for the specification of locations to anchorage points in the speech event and typically the speaker, and there are two basic ways of referring objects by describing or naming them on the one hand and by locating them on the other. Alternatively, they can be deictically specified to the location of participants at the time of speaking. There are a proximal (close to the speaker) such as this, and these, and a distal (sometime close to the addressee) such as that, and those. Each may be used either as a pronoun or in a combination with noun.

Grundy (2000, p.28) add that there are three degrees of proximity is by no means uncommon, with some languages distinguishing proximity to the speaker and to the addressee. They are: here (proximal), there (distal), where (and the archaic hither, hence, thither, thence, wither, whence), left, right, up, down, above, below, in front, behind, come go, bring, and  take.

Briefly, place deixis is an expression used to show the location relative to the location of a participant in the speech even.

 A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
 ...................................................................................
See also:
Deixis