Abstract
Demonstratio ad oculos is Bühler’s earliest use of deixis which employs either gestural indexes, or linguistic ones (separately or conjoined). Gestural signs which illustrate this use are dependent on visual access both to the sign and to its object from a Bühlerian perspective.
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Notes
- 1.
Other than the pointing finger, signs which serve as deictics within the demonstratio ad oculos genre include: the position/orientation of the entire face, as well as position/orientation of the trunk and lower extremities (Bühler 1934/1982: 19).
- 2.
A legisign, according to Peirce, is “…a law that is a sign…. Every conventional sign is a legisign. It is not a single object, but a general type which, it has been agreed, shall be significant” (EP 2:291). In the case of anaphora, the pronoun and its antecedent are both legisigns, although the pronoun is more “legisign-like” in that it expresses a general class. For example, “I,” “you,” or “she” are legisigns because they express speaker/addressee/extra conversational participant roles. If the antecedent is a proper name, it does not necessarily signify an entire class (cf. 7.4). Hence, its status as a legisign is less convincing.
- 3.
Harris and Richert’s (2008: 541) claim that talking about an entity can essentially bring it into existence further underscores the pivotal role of language in referring to novel, absent, or imagined places and objects.
- 4.
Bühler uses the word “ausgewachsen,” which can be alternatively translated as “fully realized”/“reaching potential.” This clarification enhances the interpretation of Bühler’s definition of deixis am phantasma. Bühler does not intend to claim that this use reflects/substitutes adult thought patterns, rather, that it constitutes a substantial advance in representational thought within the course of children’s affective and cognitive development.
- 5.
Innis’ (1982: 23) discussion is directly based on his own translation of Bühler’s original German Sprachtheorie (1934/1965). Innis’ translation highlights the individuality of replica memories and created fantasy as both having status as absent referents subject to Bühler’s deixis am phantasma.
- 6.
Cf. Pillemer (2009: 1201) for further discussion of empirical research regarding the influence of positive and negative affect in autobiographical retrospective memory.
- 7.
Cf. 3.5 for a more elaborated discussion.
- 8.
Freud (1900/1938: 348) is not in accord with the claim that eidetic memory materializes during an awake state. He posits that only during a dream state do eidetic images come into existence. Freud’s assumption is that eidetic images surface from psychotic hallucinations.
- 9.
Imagined experiences, especially those which supersede a more subjective reality can (perhaps more than observed ones) drive the cognitive and linguistic system to incorporate increasingly diverse points of view (Harris 2000: 186–187), necessary to expansions in deictic use.
- 10.
Automaticity, according to Segalowitz (2003: 383), involves performing a mental task “…without experiencing the need to invest additional effort and attention (or at least with significantly less effort and attention).”Automatic processing largely draws upon unconscious knowledge, such that it is often realized in its behavior effects as underlying habitual conduct—that which materializes quickly, using limited WM resources. In fact, representations which surface automatically “…are computed as late as possible before the necessary action. This just-in-time strategy, it is argued, minimises both memory and computational loads” (Findlay and Gilchrist 2003: 148).
- 11.
Fricke (2007: 4) cites to Diewald’s (1991: 212) concept of “origo-inclusive” and “origo-exclusive” deixis. Conceptually, Diewald’s reading is more nuanced, applying origo not merely to speaker/addressee (“ich,” “du”), but also a “third person” (1991: 212–213).
- 12.
Declarative memory results from conscious reflection on previous knowledge (Turk-Browne et al. 2006: 917). This knowledge consists of factual information which is stored as chunks, and organized into schemas (R. Ellis 2009: 4). It represents knowledge that X took place or is likely to take place, rather than knowledge of how an operation materializes, i.e., how the factors integral to X taking place actually contribute thereto.
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West, D.E. (2014). Bühler’s Account of Deixis as Index. In: Deictic Imaginings: Semiosis at Work and at Play. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39443-0_3
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