A Study of Person Deixis in J. M. Singe's Riders to the Sea

Abstract

This study deals with an important area in the field of linguistics, namely person deixis.
The study aims at: (1) Describing the notion of deixis, its importance, and its place in the field
of linguistics, (2) Presenting a detailed illustration of person deixis, and (3) Conducting an
analysis of person deixis in one of Synge‟s plays Riders to The Sea according to Levinson‟s
model. The most important aim of these three is the third one (the analysis). To achieve this
aim, the researcher depends on Levinson‟s (1983) descriptive approach. According to the
descriptive approach of deixis, the category of person deixis can be defined as the encoding of
the participant roles in the speech situation. This encoding is represented by the use of
pronouns and vocative forms. After conducting the analysis of the literary text, the researcher
will find the frequency of occurrences of the category of person deixis in the whole text.