The hit or miss guesswork figuring the deictic centre of the Russian patronymic

Abstract

Abstract Set within the framework of Proximization Theory, which focuses on the construal of deixis (Chilton 2004, Cap 2006, 2010, 2013), the present study explores address terms (ATs) as used by the Russian-speaking minority in Lithuania (RuL). The collected data strongly suggest that forms of address of this ethnic group have shifted from the mainland standard Russian full name + patronymic to the full name only. Moreover, the previously consistently used polite form of address with the patronymic is now largely regarded as causing discomfort and consequently avoided, especially in mixed groups. The shift in address strategy is attributed to the deictic shift along the axiological axis in the mental representations of the speakers. The patronymic-less ATs, previously placed within the outside deictic centre are shown to be reanalyzed and placed within the interactants’ inside deictic centre. Hesitations in selecting a given AT, a potential issue between the interactants from different age groups, is indicative of the internal conflict of the speaker and their mental switching between the IDC and the ODC. The proposed analysis determines the placement of patronymic and name-only forms on the axiological axis and discusses implications for the differences in Anglo-Saxon and Russian terms for address study.