Abstract:
This study examines the deictic elements in students’ long essays using Levinson’s
(2004) Theory of Deixis. Specifically, it identified the deictic elements realized and
determined their functions in the long essays of the students. A purposive sampling
was used to choose 350 written essays on English related topics from seven colleges
of education. The qualitative analysis revealed that student teachers in all the colleges
used the five types of deixis according to Levinson (2004) in their writing. Personal
deixis was the most preferred deixis used by the student teachers while social deixis
was the least realized. Moreover, the analysis showed that words in the essays which
function deictically may be able to function as personal and demonstrative references;
identify speakers and listeners; indicate psychological distance and perform
grammatical functions. In addition to appropriate use of the elements, there were
instances of inappropriate use of person deixis by student teachers. When this
happens, communication between the writer and the reader becomes very difficult and
creates cause confusion for the reader.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Applied Linguistics,
Faculty of Foreign Languages Education submitted to the
School of Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of
Master of Philosophy
(Applied Linguistics)
in the University of Education, Winneba
