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#110684 08/24/03 05:18 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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From tsuwm's site, an interesting word:
deixis
n : the function of pointing or specifying from the perspective
of a participant in an act of speech or writing; aspects
of a communication whose interpretation depends on
knowledge of the context in which the communication
occurs


#110685 08/24/03 06:25 PM
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I had not previously come across this component of the expression, but became familiar with 'deictic expressions' in linguistic studies. It's the sort of context-sensitive mannerism we'd all recognise which becomes well-nigh meaningless if the speech act is recorded - for example, someone says "I'm going to drink that". Superficially this seems close in structure to sentences like "I'm going to drink milk", but it depends for a crucial aspect of meaning on a physical action (pointing, nodding etc) which indicates the referent of "that".


#110686 08/24/03 07:06 PM
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After I posted about "deixis", into my mind unbidden popped the word "apodeixis".
"Rhetoric has borrowed from dialectic several terms relating to argumentation, including pistis (proof), apodeixis (logical demonstration), and enthymeme (informal reasoning)."
The word "pistis" is also interesting. I wonder if French "piste" which my dictionary defines as "a ski run of hard packed snow" but I remember as meaning "the track of a hunted animal" (or crimial).
Another corny joke. Railroad dick stops a man for walking on the tracks. Man says he is looking for the railroad president. "You won't find him here." "No, but I'm on his track."


#110687 08/25/03 02:30 AM
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vbq Offline
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After I posted about "deixis", into my mind unbidden popped the word "apodeixis"

deixis ex machina



#110688 08/25/03 11:06 AM
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pistis from Greek, pisteuo - believe, trust

Bingley


Bingley
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