SILGLOBALGlossary of
Linguistic Terms

Glossary term R

Relational Social Deixis

Definition

Relational social deixis is deictic reference to a social relationship between the speaker and an addressee, bystander, or other referent in the extralinguistic context.

Examples

(French, Southeast Asian languages, Dyirbal)

  • Distinctions between the French second person pronouns tu and vous
  • Speech levels of Southeast Asian languages that depend on the relative status of the speaker and addressee
  • Distinctions between lexical choices made in the presence of certain kin in Dyirb

See also

Deixis Speaker Addressee Referent Second Person Deixis Pronoun

Sources 1

  1. Levinson 1979, 207
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