Deixis in Bangla
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DEIXIS
IN
BANGLA
SABARNI DUTTA
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1.0
Introduction
Deixisis reference by means of an expression whose interpretation requires
information about the context of utteranceor speech event. The term deixis is borrowed
from the Greek word for pointing or indicating, and has as prototypical or focal exemplars
the use of demonstratives, first and second person pronouns, tense, specific time and
place adverbs and a variety of other grammatical features.
A deictic wordor an indexicalis a word which takes some element of its meaning
from the situation(i.e., the speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance
in which it is used.
The traditional categories of deixis are person, place and time, which have been
complemented by Fillmore (1975) with discourseand social deixis.
Person deixis concerns the encoding of the role of participants in the speech event
in which the utterance in question is delivered: first personis the grammaticalisation of the
speakers reference to himself, second personis the encoding of the speakers reference to
one or more addressees, and third personis the encoding of reference to persons and
entities which are neither speakers nor addressees of the utterance in question.
Time deixisconcerns the encoding of temporal points and spans relative to the
time at which the utterance was delivered. This time is called the coding time or CT, which
may be distinct from the time of its reception or receiving time(RT). In the canonicalsituation of utterance, i.e., in a face-to-face interaction, the RT is identical to CT.
Place deixisconcerns the encoding of spatial locations relative to the location of the
participants in the speech event at the coding time.
Discourse (or text)deixis concerns the encoding of reference to portions of the
unfolding discourse in which the utterance is located.
Social deixis concerns the encoding of social distinctions that are relative to
participant-roles, particularly aspects of the social relationship holding between the
speaker and addressee(s) or speaker and some referent.
Deictic expressions can be thought to be anchored to specific points in the
communicative event. Deictic expressions are typically egocentric, in which case the
unmarked anchorage points are assumed to be as follows:
i) the central person is the speaker
ii) the central time is the time at which the speaker produces the utterance
iii) the central place is the speakers location at CT
iv) the discourse centre is that point which the speaker is currently at in the production
of his utterance
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v) the social centre is the speakers social status and rank, to which the status or rank
of addressees or referents is relative.
This set of points is called the deictic centre. As speakers take turns in a
conversation, the deictic centre is moved from participant to participant. Sometimes,
deictic expressions are used in ways that shift this deictic centre to other participants. Thisis termed deictic projectionby Lyons (1977).
The aim of this paper is to examine the phenomena of person, time and place
deixisin Bangla. Bangla is a major Indo-European language of the Indian subcontinent
which, together with Oriya, Assamese, Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri, constitutes the
eastern group of languages within the Magadhan subfamily. It is spoken in the state of
West Bengal in eastern India and the adjoining republic of Bangladesh. Bangla has
diglossia. But the high, literary variety of the language known as Sadhu Bhasais now on
the verge of being almost completely replaced by the low, colloquial variety known as
Colit Bhasa, even in formal and literary contexts.
The variety of Bangla I have chosen to describe is the low one, which is also called
Standard Colloquial Bangla.This is the variety that is spoken in South-eastern West Bengal,
including Kolkata.
2.0 Examples of Deictic Expressions in Bangla
2.1Person Deixis
Person deixis in Bangla is expressed in its pronominal system, verb morphology
and kinship terms.
2.1.1Pronominal System
Bangla pronouns are inflected for person(first, second, third), number(singular,plural) and case(nominative, accusative/dative, genitive). They establish points on a
formality scale the second- and third-person pronouns have distinct forms for different
degrees of formality.
First-person pronounsencode reference to the speaker(s).
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Table 1. First-person pronouns
Number
Case
Singular Plural
Nom ami amra
Acc/Dat amake/amae amader
Gen amar amader
Second-person pronounsencode reference to the addressee(s). Three degrees of
formality are maintained in the second person intimate(Int), neutral(Neut), formal(For).
Table 2. Second-person pronouns
NumberCase Formality
Singular Plural
Nom Int tui tora
Neut tumi tomra
For apni apnara
Acc/Dat Int toke toder
Neut tomake tomader
For apnake apnader
Gen Int tor toderNeut tomar tomader
For apnar apnader
Third-person pronounsencode reference to persons or entities which are neither
speakers nor addressees of the utterance in question. Two degrees of formality are
maintained in the third person neutral(Neut), formal(For). The Demonstrative Determiners
are used for the neutral third-person pronouns. Bangla has three sets of third-person
pronouns/determiners proximal(close to speaker), distal(not close to speaker), anaphoric.The first two sets (i.e., the proximal and distal) are deictic in nature. Chatterji(1945: 278-
281) suggests that the third set of pronouns is deictic, and those pronouns encode
reference to persons or entities which are neither speakers nor addressees of the utterance
in question andare not present in the speech event in which the utterance is delivered.
Bangla also makes a distinction between third-person pronouns referring to humans and
those referring to non-humans.
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Table 3. Third-person [+human] pronouns
Deictic
Proximal DistalAnaphoric
Case Formality
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom Neut e era o ora e tara
For ini era
inara
uni ra
unara
tini tra
tinara
Acc/Dat Neut eke eder oke oder take tader
For eke
inake
eder
inader
ke
unake
der
unader
tke
tinake
tder
tinader
Gen Neut er eder or oder tar tader
For er
inar
eder
inader
r
unar
der
unader
tr tder
The third-person [-human] pronouns are formed by suffixing the singular classifier
ta/-tiand the plural classifier gulo -gulito the third-person [+human] pronominal
roots.
/
Table 4. Third-person [-human] pronouns
Deictic
Proximal Distal
AnaphoricCase
Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nom eta egulo ota ogulo eta egulo
Acc/Dat eta egulo ota ogulo eta egulo
Gen etar egulor otar ogulor etar egulor
Loc etate egulote otate ogulote etate egulote
2.1.2Verb Morphology
Bangla finite verbs agree with the nominative subject for person and formality.
Therefore, these distinctions are encoded in verbal inflections.
For example, the verb /bla/ to say inflects in the Simple Present as shown in
Table 5.
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Table 5. Inflectional paradigm of verb /bla/ in Simple Present
2
nd
Person 2
nd
/3
rd
Person 3
rd
Person
1
st
Person
Intimate Neutral Formal Neutral
boli boli
blo blen ble
2.1.2Kinship terms
Bangla kinship terms are of two types. Terms of one type(shown in Table 6) are
used in address(as vocatives in second person usage) as well as reference(reference to
individuals in 3rdperson role); terms of the other type(shown in Table 7) are used only in
reference. The referents of the terms in Table 7 are addressed by the speaker by their
given names.
Table 6. Kinship terms u ed in both add ess and refe ences r r
Term Gloss
ma mother
baba father
takurda paternal grandfather
thakurma
thakumatamma
paternal grandmother
dadu maternal grandfather
dida maternal grandmother
dada / didi elder brother/sister
bor da/di eldest brother/sister
meda/di 2nd eldest brother/sister
eda/di 3rd eldest brother/sister
nda/di 4th eldest brother/sister
raa da/di 5th eldest brother/sister
pul da/di 6th eldest brother/sister
or da/di youngest eldest brother/sister
natbou grandsons wife
bouma sons wife
younger brothers wife
natamai granddaughters husband
ta/etima
etu/etimuni
fathers elder brother/his wife
kaka/kakima fathers younger brother/his wife
pii/pio fathers sister/her husband
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Term Gloss
mama/mamima mothers brother/his wife
mai/meo mothers sister/her husband
boro ta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers eldest brother/his wife
fathers oldest younger brother/his wifefathers oldest sister/her husband
mothers oldest brother/his wife
mothers oldest sister/her husband
meo ta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers 2ndeldest brother/his wife
fathers 2ndoldest younger brother/his wife
fathers 2ndoldest sister/her husband
mothers 2ndoldest brother/his wife
mothers 2ndoldest sister/her husband
eo ta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers 3rdeldest brother/his wife
fathers 3rdoldest younger brother/his wife
fathers 3rdoldest sister/her husband
mothers 3rdoldest brother/his wife
mothers 3rdoldest sister/her husband
nta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers 4theldest brother/his wife
fathers 4tholdest younger brother/his wife
fathers 4tholdest sister/her husband
mothers 4tholdest brother/his wife
mothers 4tholdest sister/her husband
raa ta/etima" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers 5theldest brother/his wifefathers 5tholdest younger brother/his wife
fathers 5tholdest sister/her husband
mothers 5tholdest brother/his wife
mothers 5tholdest sister/her husband
pul ta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers 6theldest brother/his wife
fathers 6tholdest younger brother/his wife
fathers 6tholdest sister/her husband
mothers 6tholdest brother/his wife
mothers 6tholdest sister/her husband
oto ta/etima
" kaka/kakima
" pii/pio
" mama/mamima
" mai/meo
fathers youngest elder brother/his wife
fathers youngest younger brother/his wife
fathers youngest sister/her husband
mothers youngest brother/his wife
mothers youngest sister/her husband
boudi elder brothers wife
amaibabu elder sisters husband
younger sisters husband
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Table7. Kinship terms used only in reference
Term Gloss
ele son
me daughterbai younger brother
bon younger sister
amai daughters husband
nati grandson
natni granddaughter
puti great grandson
putni great granddaughter
ttuto bai/bon fathers elder brothers son/daughter
kurtuto bai/bon fathers younger brothers son/daughter
pistuto bai/bon fathers sisters son/daughter
mamato bai/bon mothers brothers son/daughter
mastuto bai/bon mothers sisters son/daughter
baipo/baii brothers son/daughter
bagne/bagni sisters son/daughter
Kinship terms for relatives by marriage (Table 8) can be used only in reference. The
referents are addressed by the terms used by the speakers spouse (exception /br/,/bou/
: see below)
Table 8. Kinship terms for relatives by marriage
Term Gloss
br husband
bou wife
our spouses father
auri spouses mother
kurour spouses fathers younger brother
tour spouses fathers elder brother
piauri/our spouses fathers sister/her husband
maauri/our spouses mothers siter/her husband
baur husbands elder brother
dor husbands younger brother
a husbands brothers wife
nnod husbands sister
nndai husbands sisters husbandala/ali wifes brother/sister
baera wifes sisters husband
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The speaker addresses his/her spouse with /ai/, as in:
(1) ai, tumi ki apel kabe?Spouse, will you eat (an) apple?
This term /ai/ is a call or summons, but not an address:
(2) * amar me nei, ai.I dont have time, spouse.
2.1.3Deictic Projection
In Bangla, deictic projection or shifts in points of view for the purpose of vocative
selection is common. So, it is possible for a persons father to say to him/her:
(3) ma baare geMa has gone to the market.
Here, /ma/ refers to the addressees mother, and not to the speakers mother.
2.2Time Deixis
Bangla, like many other languages, contains pure time deictic expressions, as well
as non-deictic ways of referring to time. In pure time deixis, there is no direct interaction
with non-deictic methods of time reckoning. Non-deictic or absolute methods use
absolute units of time such as the natural cycles of days, seasons and years, and units
derived from these, such as weeks and months.
2.2.1Pure time deictic expressions
Pure time deixis is expressed in time adverbials and distinctions in tense in Bangla.
Table 9. Time adverbials
Term Gloss
kon the pragmatically given span including CT
tkon the pragmatically given span removed from CT
koni instant of time following CT
ek:uni instant of time including CT
tok:uni instant of time removed from CT
idani span of time preceding and inclusive of CTpre span of time following and not inclusive of CT
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Tenses encode a mixture of deictic time distinctions and aspectual distinctions. In Bangla,
the Past, Present and Future tenses interact with the Simple, Progressive, Perfective and
Habitual aspects. Table 10 gives the gloss of the tenses as used in Bangla.
Table 10.
Tense Gloss
Present Specifies that the state or event holds or is
occurring during a span of time including CT;
proximal to CT
Past Specifies that the state or event held or occurred
during a span of time preceding CT; distal to CT
Future Specifies that the state or event will hold or occur
during a span of time succeeding CT; distal to CT
2.2.2Interaction of time deixis with absolute units of time
This sub-section deals with the interaction of time deixis with cultural
measurements of time in an absolute or non-deictic way.
Bangla has a symmetrical system for naming three days on either side today. The
words for them are given in Table 11 gives words from Bangla that are used as measures
relative to the CT.
Table 11.words used to measure diurnal spans relative to the CT.
Term Gloss
a the diurnal span(DS) including CT
kal the DS adjacent to the DS that includes CT
poru the DS that is one DS removed from the DS that
includes CT
toru the DS that is two DSs removed from the DS thatincludes CT
These measure words pre-empt the calendrical ways of referring to the relevant
days. So, the following, said on Monday, refers to the next Tuesday, and not to the
following day:
(4) tomarge mogolbar dka hbeIll see you on Tuesday
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However, utterances such as (4) are interpreted differently by different speakers
(4) can refer to either the immediately following day or some remote Tuesday.
Table 12 shows complex time adverbials in Bangla which consist of a deictic
modifier and a non-deictic name or measure word. The measure word is represented by X
and Y. X ranges over the terms week, month, year; Y is a proper noun denoting a day of theweek or a month of the year.
Table 12. Complex time adverbials
Expression Gloss
ei X the unit X including CT
ager X the unit X preceding the unit X including CT
agami X the unit X succeeding the unit X including CT
ei Y the unit Y which succeeds or precedes the unit ofthe same order that includes CT
ager Y the unit Y which precedes the unit of the same
order that includes CT
agami Y the unit Y which succeeds the unit of the same
order that includes CT
Complex adverbials consisting of a non-deictic name that refers to a specific period
of the day are slightly more complicated Bangla requires different expressions for
referring to a period of the day when that span includes CT and a period of the day when
the span does not include CT, but is within the diurnal span containing CT.
Table 13 gives a list of Bangla terms used to refer to specific periods of the day.
Table 13
Term Gloss
bor dawn to sunrise
kal sunrise to noondupur noon to 3PM
bikel 3PM to sunset
ond e sunset to 9PM
rat/ratri 9PM to dawn
The expression eiX-e, where X ranges over the terms given in Table 13, is used to
refer to the span X when X includes CT.
(5) eikal-e ami kla ke:i
this morning-LOC I banana eat-1p.-Pres.Perf.I have eaten a banana this morning
CT = in the morning
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The expressions a X-eand Xbla-e are used to refer to the span X when CT is
not included in X.
(6) a kal-e ami kla ke:i
today morning-LOC I banana eat-1p.-Pres.Perf.I have eaten a banana this morning
CT = not in the morning
(7) kalbla-e ami kla ke:imorningtime-LOC I banana eat-1p.-Pres.Perf.
I have eaten a banana this morning
CT = not in the morning
2.3
Place Deixis
Place or spatial deixis in Bangla is expressed by the use of demonstrative
determiners and motion verbs.
2.3.1Demonstrative Determiners
Bangla has three demonstrative determiners:i) /e(i)/
ii) /o(i)/
iii) /e(i)/
Dasgupta (2003) terms them Proximal, Distal, and Sequent (respectively). According
to Dasgupta, Sequents are follow-up Demonstratives, not pointing to the external world,
but sending us back to a first reference to the entity in the sentence or the discourse.
The demonstrative determiners combined with /kan-e/ in place form place
adverbsin Bangla:
i) Proximal:
e(i)kan-ethis place-LOC
in this place
ii) Distal:
o(i)kan-ethat(deictic) place-LOC
in that place
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ii) Sequent:
e(i)kan-ethat(anaphoric) place-LOC
in that place
The Proximal and Distal adverbs are deictic, and the Sequent is anaphoric. Thedistal-deictic and anaphoric adverbs can be used in correlative constructions (Bagchi
1994).
The interpretation of the deictic adverbs depends on their usage, as shown in Table
14.
Table 14
Adverb Usage Gloss
gestural the pragmatically given space, proximal to
the speakers location at CT and visible to
the speaker at CT, that includes the point or
location gesturally indicated
e(i)kan-e
symbolic the pragmatically given space that includes
the location of the speaker at CT
gestural the pragmatically given space, distal to the
speakers location at CT and visible to the
speaker at CT, that includes the point or
location gesturally indicated
o(i)kan-e
symbolic the pragmatically given space, distal to the
speakers location at CT, proximal to the
addressee at RT and necessarily visible to
the addressee at RT.
e i)k
an-ecan only be used in anaphoric constructions (Bagchi 1994, Dasgupta
2003) - it is anaphoric in nature in that it needs an overt antecedent NP (Bagchi 1994).
However, it also involves a visibility feature which is deictic in nature - the place that theadverb refers to is beyond the fields of vision of the speaker(s) and the addressee(s). If, in a
correlative construction, the place to be referred to by a correlative place adverbial (i.e.,
either o(i)kan-e or e(i)kan-e) is visible to either the speaker or the addressee (or both),
the speaker would use the form o(i)kan-e.
The demonstrative determiners combined the singular classifier ta/-tiand the
plural classifier gulo/-guliform demonstrative pronounsin Bangla (as seen in section
2.1.1)
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Table 15. Bangla demonstrative pronouns
Pronoun Gloss
e(i)-ta / e(i)-gulo the object(s) in a pragmatically given area close to
the speakers location at CT
o(i)-ta / o(i)-gulo the object(s) beyond the pragmatically given area
close to the speakers location at CT
2.3.2Motion Verbs
Bangla has two motion verbsthat have built-in deictic components - /aa/ to
come, and /awa/ to go. Use of the verb /aa/ signals motion towards the speakerslocation, or addressees location, at either CT or reference time, or motion towards the
home-base maintained at CT by either speaker or addressee. Similarly, the verb /awa/can be glossed as motion away from the speakers location, or addressees location, at
either CT or reference time, or motion away from the home-base maintained at CT by
either speaker or addressee.
Either of these two motion verbs can participate as a vector verb in a compound
verb, in which the primary verb is an action verb. The use of a motion verb in such
compound verbs imparts a sense of motion (towards or away from speaker or addressee)
to the meaning of the compound verb:
(8) a. mita ata-ta ni:e geMita umbrella-TA carry gone
Mita has taken the umbrella
b. mita ata-ta ni:e eeeMita umbrella-TA carry come
Mita has brought the umbrella
(10) a.
ri d
i:e ut
e ae
stairs by climb come
Come up the stairs
b. ri di:e ute astairs by climb go
Go up the stairs
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3.0
Conclusion
Deictic reference plays a particularly important role in language it is the most
obvious way in which the relationship between language and context is reflected in the
structures of language itself. The pervasiveness of deixis in natural languages can be
explained on the assumption that they have been developed for communication in face-to-
face interaction, which involves all the participants present in the same actual situation
when the utterance is delivered.
In the analysis of deixis in Bangla (indeed in all languages), it is difficult to separate
the five categories of deixis from one another all instances of deixis in the language
involve, to some extent, an overlapping of these categories. For example, personal
pronouns involve person, space and social deixis, demonstratives involve person and
space, motion verbs involve space and time, etc.
Some deictic expressions in Bangla can be used both deictically and anaphorically,
but non-deictic usages of deictic expressions are very rare. Bangla has three sets of third-
person pronouns/determiners (demonstrative determiners), only two of which can be used
in correlative constructions (i.e., anaphorically). This distinction is not present in most
other Indo-Aryan languages. For example, Modern Standard Hindi uses its demonstratives
both deictically and anaphorically. The selection of Bangla demonstrative determiners by a
speaker to signal their intended referent has been investigated in this paper only in terms
of spatial and time deixis the Givenness Hierarchy (Gundel, Hedberg, Zacharski, 1993)
has not been taken into account for the description of the uses of the demonstratives.
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4.0
References
1. Bagchi, Tista 1994. Bangla correlative pronouns, relative clause order and
D-linking. In M. Butt, T. King & G. Ramchand (eds.), Theoretical perspectiveson word order in South Asian languages(pp. 13-30). Stanford, CA: CSLI
Publications.
2. Chacn, Dustin 2008. Bangla Referring Expressions.
http://ohhai.mn/cornell.pdf
3.
Chatterjee, Suniti 1945. Bangla Byakaran. Calcutta: Calcutta University
Press.
4. Dasgupta, Probal 2003. Bangla. In G. Cardona & D. Jain (eds.), The Indo-
Aryan Languages(pp. 351-390). London: Routledge.5.
Hudson, Donald 1965. Teach Yourself Bengali. London: The English
Universities Press.
6. Levinson, Stephen 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge
7.
Levinson, Stephen 2004.Deixis. In L. Horn & G. Ward (eds.),The handbook
of Pragmatics (pp. 97-121). Blackwell Publishing.
8. Sengupta, Gautam 2000. Lexical Anaphors and Pronouns in Bangla. In B.
Lust (ed.), Lexical anaphors and pronouns in selected South Asianlanguages: a principled typology (pp. 277-332). New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.