PERSONAL AND DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS AS LINGUISTIC MEANS OF MODELLING THE ADDRESSEE IN KATE FOX’S BOOK “WATCHING THE ENGLISH”

Abstract

Problem statement. The paper considers person deixis as linguistic means of modelling the addressee in Kate Fox’s book “Watching the English. The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour”. It tackles particular characteristics of linguistic and cultural situation that define the type of addressee. The paper features examples of person deixis and the author’s use of these linguistic means. It describes the semantic features and the ability of the pronouns to function as deictic markers which provide cohesion of the components in the speech act. The main objective in the study was to analyze the text from the pragmatic point of view, particularly the pronoun deixis and communicative tactics applied by the author. Results. The study revealed the dual nature of the addressee communicated by means of personal pronouns. In the text, the addressee is portrayed as a representative of either the author’s native culture or another culture. When talking to her compatriots, the author unites herself with the addressee by using the pronoun “we”. In other contexts, she takes the position of an observer by the foreign reader’s side and uses third-person pronouns. The study has also revealed that the author uses the indicative pronoun “that” as a way of enhancing the evaluativity in the text, while “this” has the same function in the text as the first-person pronouns. Conclusion. The results of the study suggest that the author uses a variety of deictic techniques to present her position, thus achieving the maximum involvement of the addressee in the narrative.