Deictic expressions and running for some biscuits
Hello Marcos!
I hope you had a good weekend and didn’t have to work all through it…
For some strange reason I suddenly felt like writing late on Saturday evening, so stayed up until 3.30 am writing about ‘assessment’ for a book I’m working on with colleagues from York St John and another university in Texas, USA. Weird (my writing moods, not the book). Actually, I did spend some of the time trying to sing along to pop videos from the 1980’s on YouTube…
On Sunday, our friends, Bob, Chandy and their cute baby Emma, came over to York from Leeds, where they have an English Language School.
We all met many years ago in Indonesia, where we were working as English language teachers. Just before they arrived at our house, Clara ran* to the shops to buy some biscuits for us to eat with our coffee. Of course, I asked her to take the video camera with her (killing two birds with one stone…). At the end of my post I have put a picture of the sky yesterday (my third ‘sky’ picture since starting this blog, I’m not sure why) and here is her video:
Clara’s walk to the shops
Right, let’s get down to some work. Today I’m going to talk briefly about how ways of talking about time, place and persons (the technical word for these is deictic expressions*) can change when we report speech. Because we are often in a different time and place from the original speech, and often reporting someone else’s words, the deictic expressions need to change to make the difference clear to our reader (or listener).
Look at this example:
“Can you go and buy some biscuits before they get here*, Clara?” Rachel asked.
We can rewrite this as:
I've asked Clara if she will go and buy some biscuits before they get here.
Explanation:
The reporter (Rachel) is the person who spoke and is at the same place where the original question was asked (here), very soon after the question was asked and before any action has been taken (Clara hasn’t been to the shops yet). Perhaps Rian offered to go and buy some biscuits, and I said, "It's OK thanks, I've asked Clara...".
Rachel asked Clara if she would go and buy some biscuits before they got here.
Explanation:
The reporter is a different person (not Rachel) to the person who spoke and is at the same place where the original question was asked, but the time the question was asked is now in the past. Perhaps Clara has already gone to the shops.
She asked me if I would go and buy some biscuits before they got here.
Explanation:
The reporter is Clara and she is at the same place where the original question was asked. The time the question was asked is now in the past. Maybe Clara is talking to the shop assistant.
She asked Clara if she would go and buy some biscuits before they got there.
Explanation:
The reporter is a different person (not Rachel) to the person who spoke and is in a different place (there) from where the original question was asked. The time the question was asked is now in the past.
I asked Clara if she would go and buy some biscuits before you got here.
Explanation:
The reporter (Rachel) is the person who spoke and is at the same place where the original question was asked (here). The time the question was asked is now in the past. Rachel is talking to Bob and Chandy (you).
OK, I’m going to try and upload this post before midnight. Hope you have a good week Marcos!
Rachel
* deictic expressions = ways of pointing to time (for example, tenses and words like yesterday and ago), place (here, there, this shop, that university) and persons (she, they) at the moment of speaking.
* run = to make a quick trip (informal).
* get here/there = arrive
Comments
Hello Rachel! Are you fresh enough in the morning after such a long night work? I feel almost like in a delírium in the morning when I don´t have enough sleep (it´s quite often). I am not surprissed you´ve been working on a scientific book. It was clear for me from the counting scene at the simmel cake and your guidance here of course! And here I am to say today´s grammar programme is the biggest ´nut´ for me to understand. Yes, I understand as I am going through your precise explanation but I am happy I speak anywhere for I would be lost to use something like this in a conversation. It doesn´t exist in slovak language and a real rebus is always for me these lexical experessions like ´deictic´ I´ve never came acros. Finaly, I appreciate the nice sky serial. It remembers me of that you live on that island and I feel that it must be a different feeling. Having this chat with you it put me better into being allert than the firt cup of coffee! Nice day to you!
Hello, Rachel! It was great explanation of deictic expressions. I like your style of giving examples based on your own live situations. It really helps to understand not only grammar, but makes it clear how to use it. Thanks a lot.
Hi Rachel! I like your simple and clear explanations of deictic expressions because they don’t have much elaborate words.They are fully understandable and comprehensible to me. By the way, the other day I was very inquisitive about how many times I had commented on both of student and teacher’s blogs so far when you were talking about finding frequency words through the tool box above the teacher's blog.So, I input my name in the search box. Can you guess what number I got? It was a staggering 547. I must have been a serious, sincere and loyal reader and participant. Rachel and Carrie, don’t you think I am qualified enough to get the calendar or key holder or even a shirt from BBC Learning English? (Just kidding). Thank you for the fantastic lesson and I’ll keep my nose to the grindstone to use it in my English writings. Before I am off I must say to thank Clara for the clip. Have a good day!
What I liked most is ‘Clara’s walk to the shops’ video. I must say that the co-op (I think it’s the nearest shop to your place) is quite far away from your house, but fortunately you’ve got a daughter, who does everything you want her to do. You are lucky! My children are older than yours and don’t live with me, but my neighbours has got a daughter, who, when asked to do something, does everything so as not to do anything. But when I ask her for some help, she always does everything I tell her. Kids are sometimes weird, aren’t they? Or maybe it’s we who are? I will have to give some thought to it. I’m looking forward to your subsequent grammar explanations, which I really like, and videos by Clara, which I enjoy very much. Best wishes to you and Clara.
Hello Rachel! Its really interesting to know that you feel fresh and light I liked your way of writing its very clear and understandable. I've noticed one thing in your blog that you always post some videos related to sky which is nice -:). Clara looks very helpful thanx to her. Have a nice day!.
Hi Rachel, I like your clear explanation of deictic expressions. I have learned something new today. I really look forward to write some thing here. Unlike you I always work better in the morning. Occasionaly I would work late at night but that would be when I have no choice but to work late at night. My concentration is not great at night however, I am more focused in the morning hours. There is another good thing about working late at night is that everybody is a sleep so you can have a nice quite atmosphere. In the morning everyone is awake so may be it won't be possible to find a quite corner in the house if you have to work at home. I loved Clara's walk. I was nice to see all the houses along the way and she gave a very good description of everything she came across. By the way, how old is Clara? I also like your new picture of sky. Isn't it wonderful to see how the sky changes so quickly especially in the UK and how amazing it looks. I will be waiting to see some wonderful pictures of sky. Thanks for working so hard to help us improve our english. Regards to everyone in the team and to Clara. Have a nice day. Rabail UK
Thank you very much to Rachel and clara, i started learning about reporting speech after reading BBC LE blogs, iam pretty happy to say my understanding of english improved.
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