2. Deictic reference in space

Abstract

In this chapter, we present an approach to spatial deixis as co-participants' embodied and situationally embedded practices of co-orientation and joint attention to entities in their sensory reach. These practices combine gaze, pointing (by different means) and other bodily practices with verbal resources provided by the respective language systems. Such an approach to deictic reference also provides the foundations for the analysis of the "lived space" and how it is constructed in interaction. We claim that an appropriate starting point for the investigation of deictic reference is Bühler's theory of the deictic field (Zeigfeld), which is a strictly ego-centric theory. We link Bühler's approach to phenomenological work on deixis that foregrounds the primordial role of the body (Leib) as the origo of all spatial indices. Against this background, we further discuss the structuration of space through spatial demonstratives of proximity and distance and show that a "sociocentric" approach to spatial deixis is not adequate, even though the establishment of joint attention via deixis is a deeply interactional process. Finally, we show how Bühler's ego-centric theory accounts for more complex forms of deixis in the imagination. We discuss examples for Bühler's first and second case of deixis in the imagination and conclude with a case of hybrid referential practices in electronic media, drawing on an example from a virtual reality game

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