Deixis and Indexicals As Meaning Making Devices in Selected Spoken and Written Texts

Abstract

Human beings are social animals and communicate their needs through various linguistic symbols. They use deistic expressions to manipulate meaning based on their different experiences. This paper aims to show how deixis contributes to constructing the meaning and dynamics of utterances in communication. It attempts to foreground and contextualise deixis and indexicals as prominent linguistic components that establish meaning in social interactions or relationships in all communication exchanges. The paper collected data from selected spoken and written expressions in literary texts, daily newspapers, bible excerpts and casual expressions, focusing on how deictic expressions were used in different situations to express locations, time, attitude, positions, status and others. Through the analysis, it was discovered that deixis and indexicals are vitals in social engagements as they help to interpret the meaning and also showed that meaning extends beyond the traditional grammar with context as the core in interpreting grammatical structures. The paper concludes that since deixis and indexicals are daily linguistic items that language users integrate into their communication patterns, their knowledge is essential to understanding human language.