Re: Fourth Person

On Sun, 4 Oct 1998, Christopher Palmer wrote:

> On Sun, 4 Oct 1998, Tom Wier wrote:
>
> > Personness is, after all, only a matter of deixis:
>
> No, it isn't. For example, I'm speaking to you, even though you are far
> away. Are you the third person in the email? No, you're the second person
> -- the hearer.
Are you confusing physical distancee with grammatical deixis?  It
shouldn't matter how far away the speaker is physically from you.  Deixis
is a matter of relationships.  It "indicates" by pointing out a
relationship between a speaker and a hearer to a third thing.  So
something is only very far away in a discourse as it relates to the
speaker making the observation and the person he's speaking to.  In other
words, if I say the bush is to the left of the house, I have to assume
that you are with me over here.  Otherwise my left might be your right.
That's a deictic qualification.

When you say "you," whether it be in a letter or on email or on the
telephone, that sets up a grammatical relationship and intimacy that has
nothing to do with physical distance.

Sally
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Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html

                        Mr. Book: "Shut it down!"
                        _Dark City_

                         Christof: "Cue the sun!"
                        _The Truman Show_

Tehwo tsema brondi laz obil hea nomai pendo
"Summer like a white sword hangs over the land."
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