topic deixis investigation in what makes you special speech mariana atencio

In addition, the reason why we choose this speech of Mariana Atencio to analyze isthat we found a large number of different types of deixis used.. Deixis refers to expressions that rely

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FL4225 English SemanticsClass

TOPIC: Deixis investigation in "What makes you special?"

speech - Mariana Atencio

July 28, 2023

Vũ Lê Diễm QuỳnhLương Thị Thủy Tiên

201936082019363320193501

TABLE OF CONTENTS

II.THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 3

III.STATISTICSIV.DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS 4

VŨ LÊ DIỄM QUỲNH - 20204152

The study of meaning in language is known as semantics (Hurford & Heasley, 2007).In this course, we studied a phenomenon called deixis, which refers to the requirement forcontext in order to grasp the meaning of specific words and phrases Deixis increasinglyreceives the attention of academicians in linguistic research; using it in lectures, especially inspeeches is more and more popular This makes our group curious about finding out deeplyabout the features of deixis, and after careful discussion, our group decided to learn aboutdeixis and analyze the application of different kinds of deixis in Mariana Atencio's speech.The next parts of this essay will generalize the deixis and analyze deixis types as well asinvestigate them in Mariana Atencio's speeches

II.Theoretical Background

This part presents an overview of deixis including the definition of deixis, theclassification, and the purpose of this essay.

First of all, according to Hurford, J R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M B (2007), a deicticword is one which takes some element of its meaning from the context or situation (i.e thespeaker, the address, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used In particular,words like here, there, this, that, now and then as well as most pronouns such as: I, we, you,he, her and them are deictic expressions Therefore, deixis is the general phenomenon of theiroccurrence

Deixis is a branch of linguistic study that appears in both spoken and written language.Deixis, according to Yule (1996), means "to refer" or "point" through language The audiencecan ascertain the genuine meaning of the deictic words that the speaker uses by understandingdeixis since it emphasizes the connection between words and the context of words Fillmore’stheory (1997) divided deixis into three categories: person deixis, spatial place deixis, and/

time/temporal deixis Discourse and social deixis were later proposed as two additionalcategories of deixis However, the three primary categories of person, place, and time deixiswill be the focus of this essay.

Deixis is a part of the language that often appears in written or spoken discourse aswell as daily conversation Deixis in discourse can be found in speech A discourse given byone person in front of an audience is an example of a speech It is typically performed by aleader of a nation, business, or community.

Moreover, according to Hurford, J R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M B (2007), the contextof an utterance is a small subpart of the universe of discourse shared by speaker and hearer,

and includes facts about the topic of the conversation in which the utterance occurs, and alsofacts about the situation in which the conversation itself takes place

The whole context here is about the speech of Mariana Atencio, an NBC Newsjournalist In her speech to students of University Nevada, Mariana tells a meaningful lessonabout the experiences she gains and her immigrant community She is one of the speakerswho has speeches that used deixis to make his speech more persuasive She is regarded as agreat public speaker She typically knows how to tailor her discourse for the audience,including using deixis

In addition, the reason why we choose this speech of Mariana Atencio to analyze isthat we found a large number of different types of deixis used It can be said that deixis is oneof the potential tools to win public support in delivering speech It is intriguing to consider thereasons for her decision to choose a particular deixis to serve as the connection between theevent, location, participants, and actual words spoken during her speech We decided on thissubject for the same reason And the purpose of this essay is to describe how deixis is used inMariana Atencio’s speech.

LƯƠNG THỊ THỦY TIÊN - 2019

III.Statistics

The following table presents an analysis of deixis word usage in a set of 301 utterances Deixis refers to expressions that rely on context, often involving the participants ina speech event, locations, or time references.

The most frequently used deixis type is person deixis, accounting for 89.36% of the total utterances (269 out of 301) Within the person deixis category, the first-person pronouns are the most prevalent, occurring 145 times The second-person pronouns appear 44 times The third-person pronouns are used 80 times.

Spatial or place deixis is used in 12 utterances, comprising 3.98% of the total However, the table does not provide specific details about the types of spatial/place deixis expressions used.

Temporal or time deixis is found in 20 utterances, making up 6.66% of the total Thereare two subcategories within temporal deixis: proximal form and distal form The proximal form, which refers to time close to the moment of speaking, appears 7 times The distal form, referring to time further from the moment of speaking, is used 13 times.

In the speech, Mariana Atencio tends to use person deixis dominantly in her speech because while delivering speech, she wanted to create a personal and emotional

connection with the audience, adds credibility to the speaker's words, and empowers the audience to take an active role in the speech's message and activities.

Table 1: The Frequency of Deixis in "What makes you special?" speech.

No Types of Deixis Number of Utterances Percentage (%)1Person 269 89,36 %

1st person: 145 2nd

person:44 3rd person: 80

48,1%;14,6 %; 26,66 %

2Spatial/ Place 123,98 %3Temporal/

Total 301 100%

IV.Deictic expressions in Mariana Atencio Speech

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1 Place deixis

First, about place deixis, also known as spatial deixis, indicates where the speakermentioned a place they want to refer to According to Levinson (1983), place deixis involvesencoding the spatial positions relative to the positions of speech event participants Therelative position between the speaker and the listener in relation to communication is calledthe place deixis (Kushartanti, as cited in Anata, 2017) Place deixis focuses on the relativeposition of a person or object of conversation or speech In this place, deixis is typicallyemployed as this, that, here, there, those, or these The following will analyze how AtencioMariana used place deixis in her speech.

The information comes from the speech made by Mariana Atencio to the students of

Nevada University on February 3, 2017 In this speech, she used the place deixis “here” to

indicate the place where she performed her speech: “Today, I’m here to talk about mystory…”

In addition, she also used place deixis in this sentence: “My story begins in Caracas,Venezuela, in South America, where I grew up; a place that to me was, and always will be,filled with magic and wonder”.

The context in this case indicates the place appearing in her speech, which is not inanother person The words “Caracas”, “Venezuela” and “South America” refer to the placethat is not near to the speaker, Mariana Atencio As it is found, when Mariana Atencio usedplace deictic expressions that referred to the location where she grew up, she tried to persuadethe audience that her country (in South America) gave her a good opportunity to discover thisworld.

In two sentences below, place deixis plays an important role in expressing herthoughts: “It was going to be perfect, just like in my favorite TV show: "Saved by the Bell Iget there, and they tell me that my assigned roommate is eagerly waiting” and “The firstnight, the camp director gathered everyone around the campfire and said, "Kids, we have avery international camp this year; the Atencios are here from Venezuela."

The place deixis used in the specific context When Maria Atenico delivered herspeech, she wanted to indicate the place where Mariana Atencio found her passion from thesummer camp The place deixis “there” and “here” used which is far from her speech inNevada University at that time When she used a place deixis to refer to the place where sherecognized her personality, Mariana Atencio seemed to make students realize that as a youngperson they had a lot of opportunities to develop themselves

Other types of place deixis is “this summer camp”: “He went on and on about thebenefits of spending an entire summer in this summer camp in the United States, stressing alittle phrase that I didn't pay too much attention to at the time: "You never know what thefuture holds."

In this case, the place that is mentioned connects closely with the specific context Thephrase “this summer camp” is a place to refer to the location where Mariana Atencioparticipated in the past It also shows her father’s decision to send her from her home inVenezuela to a summer camp in Brainerd, Minnesota This is a place where Mariana Atenciodiscovered that the best way to belong was to embrace the qualities that made her different.Atencio describes how these early lessons from this place helped her succeed as an immigrantand as a journalist

In summary, place deixis play an important role in Mariana Atencio speech By usingplace deictic expressions to deliver her message, the audience can determine the specificcontext she wants to mention at that time

LƯƠNG THỊ THỦY TIÊN - 2019

2.Person deixis

Person deixis, according to Levinson (1983), involves encoding the roles ofparticipants in a speech event In simpler terms, person deixis refers to expressions thatindicate the specific person the speaker intends to refer to Here are some example of usingperson deixis in the speech:

Mariana Atencio shares her experience of watching election results withundocumented families and comforting a young girl named Angelina who was worried abouther mother's potential deportation By using the first-person pronouns ("I," "me," "we") ithighlights the speaker's direct involvement and emotional connection to the events she isdescribing This personal touch creates a stronger impact on the audience and emphasizes thesignificance of the story being shared "I" is used to compare the speaker's childhoodexperience with Angelina's current situation, establishing a personal connection between thetwo

"I watched election results with undocumented families." In this sentence, "I" is used

to refer to the speaker, emphasizing her experience of being present during the election resultswith undocumented families "When it became apparent that Donald Trump was winning, thiseight-year-old girl named Angelina rushed up to me in tears." ."Me" is used to refer to the

speaker, indicating that Angelina approached them during the emotional moment of DonaldTrump winning the election "I hugged her back and said, 'It's going to be okay,' but I I reallydidn't know." The repeated use of "I" emphasizes the speaker's personal actions and emotionsduring this interaction with Angelina "This was the photo we took that night, foreveringrained in my heart." "We" is used here to refer to the group, including the speaker andAngelina, who took the photo together

In addition, she also shares a powerful and emotional story about an eight-year-old girlnamed Angelina who is faced with the fear of her mother's potential deportation The use of

"she," "her," "they," and "them" emphasizes the personal and empathetic connection Mariana

Atencio has with Angelina and other families in similar situations The third-person deixishere highlights the importance of seeing individuals like Angelina as unique and specialhuman beings with stories and struggles, rather than just labeling them as part of a generalizedgroup.

"She sobbed, and she asked me if her mom was going to be deported now." Thepronoun "she" refers to Angelina, the eight-year-old girl who is emotionally affected andconcerned about her mother's potential deportation "She already knows she is 'the

other.”Again, the pronoun "she" is used to refer to Angelina, emphasizing her young age andawareness of her marginalized position as "the other" in society "She walks home fromschool in fear, every day, that her mom can be taken away." The pronoun "she" is repeatedhere, continuing to refer to Angelina, highlighting her daily experience of fear and uncertaintydue to her mother's potential deportation “How do we make her understand she is special,and not simply unworthy of having her family together?" In these sentences, "her" is used as athird-person singular pronoun, referring to Angelina Mariana Atencio is discussing the needto empathize with Angelina's situation and make her feel special and deserving of having herfamily together "By giving camera time to her and families like hers, I tried to make peoplesee them as human beings, and not simply 'illegal aliens.” The pronouns "her" and "them"refer to Angelina and families in similar circumstances, emphasizing Mariana Atencio’sefforts to humanize and bring attention to their stories rather than reducing them to a label like"illegal aliens" In summary, the third-person deixis helps emphasize the personal aspect ofthe stories and the importance of recognizing the humanity and uniqueness of each individualwithin these broader societal issues.

"I want you all to take that sticker that was given to you at the beginning of our session today, where you wrote down what makes you special, and I want you to look at it If

you're watching at home, take a piece of paper, and write down what makes you different." The speech takes place in a group setting, where the speaker addresses a live audience ("you all") who are physically present at the session In this paragraph, Mariana Atencio directly addresses the audience using the pronoun "you." She is speaking to the listeners directly, using "you" to refer to each individual present in the session and those watching at home It empowers them to take action and participate actively in the activity, encouraging them to engage in self-reflection This direct address engages the audience and encourages them to actively participate in the activity, making the speech more effective in achieving its objectives of promoting self-reflection and self-acceptance.

The context of using person deixis in these sentences is to establish a personalconnection between Mariana Atencio and the individuals mentioned in the narrative Persondeixis refers to expressions that indicate specific people who she intends to refer to, and inthis speech, the speaker uses it to draw attention to particular individuals and theirexperiences The pronouns used throughout the speech help to establish the roles of thevarious participants and draw attention to the struggles faced by undocumented families,especially when political events like the election results can have significant impacts on theirlives and future.

The use of person deixis in the speech holds several significant implications thatcontribute to the effectiveness of the narrative and the emotional impact it carries It createsemotional connections, humanizes the characters, generates empathy, and calls for action Byusing pronouns strategically, the speaker engages the audience and encourages them to see theshared humanity of undocumented families, fostering a more compassionate andunderstanding perspective Specifically, by using first-person pronouns ("I," "me") andsecond-person pronouns, the speaker establishes a direct and personal connection with theaudience This fosters a sense of intimacy and empathy, drawing listeners into the speaker'sexperiences and emotions As a result, the audience becomes more emotionally invested in thestory, making them more receptive to the message being conveyed And, through the use ofthird-person pronouns ("she," "her"), especially when referring to Angelina and otherundocumented families, the speech humanizes these individuals It emphasizes theirindividuality, struggles, and vulnerability This humanization counters any dehumanizing orstigmatizing language that may have been previously associated with undocumentedimmigrants, framing them as real people with real stories and emotions Moreover, the use ofperson deixis, along with the emotional narrative, serves as a powerful call to action Bysharing the experiences of real individuals like Angelina and their families, the speaker urgesthe audience to consider the humanity and plight of undocumented immigrants This canmotivate listeners to advocate for more compassionate immigration policies and support.

BÙI NGUYỄN NGỌC BÍCH - 2020

3 Temporal/Time Deixis

Temporal deixis, as described by Levinson (1983), involves encoding temporal pointsand spans relative to the time of the utterance or inscription of a written message Temporaldeixis is commonly observed in grammaticalized adverbs of time, such as "now" and "then,"or specific time references like "yesterday." In English, there are two basic forms: the presenttense, which represents the proximal form, and the past tense, which represents the distalform For instance, "I live here now" demonstrates the present tense, while "I lived there then"showcases the past tense In summary, temporal deixis refers to expressions that denote aspecific period of time when the utterance is produced by the speaker It allows for effectivecommunication of temporal information and plays a crucial role in language understandingand context interpretation

In the speech made by Mariana Atencio to the students of Nevada University on February 3,2017, we found a lot of Time deixis

As you can see on the statistics table, there are 20 deictic words refer to time In which, thedistal form has 13 words, account for 65% and the proximal form just has 7 words with 35%.Reasons for the difference in using these 2 types of Time deixis is that the author talked aboutthe time she enjoyed summer plans when she was a child So, she used the distal form of timedeixis more than proximal form.

To better understand how time deixis works, we would like to give a few examples of timedeixis in both proximal and distal form From there, we can see how the author used timedeixis in her speech.

The first example is of the proximal form of Time deixis In the first part of her speech, whileintroducing herself, Mariana said: “I am a journalist My job is to talk to people from all

walks of life, all over the world Today, I want to tell you why I decided to do this with my life

and what I've learned.” The deictic expression here is “today” The word "today" does notrefer to today's time in fact It refers to the date when Mariana gave a speech at NevadaUniversity in 2017 By using the word “today”, the author showed the audience that sheknows what she should and will do when she comes here, which is to share the experiencesshe gained through participating in summer plans during her childhood.

We would like to show you another example about the distal form of Time deixis In thespeech, Mariana said: “We later did what we called “the summer camp experiment,” for eightyears in different cities that many Americans haven’t even heard of What I remember mostabout these moments was when I finally clicked with someone Making a friend was a specialreward.” The phrase “these moments” is a deictic expression It shows the moments that theauthor experienced in the past are all vividly remembered by her, such as how wonderful itwas when she made friends with someone At the same time, it also proves that the things sheshares later are based entirely on what the author has experienced Not only that,remembering all those moments is also one of the reasons why the author achieves successwhen growing up.

Through 2 examples above, we can see that Time deixis is used by the author to talk from thetime in the past when she was a child to when she became a journalist It helps listenersunderstand the whole process of growing up and what the author learned while participatingin the summer plans That is one of the main reasons why the author becomes famous and canstand on the stage to share about the good things for everyone.

IV Implications

From Mariana Atecio's speech, we would like to show our understanding about the way theauthor used Time deixis in her speech: