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CHAPTER V
ANALYSIS OF DEIXIS IN ANIMAL FARM AND LUCKY JIM
5.1 Introduction
The present chapter deals with the analysis of selected passages from Animal Farm
and Lucky Jim in the light of Elam’s finding concerning the use of deictic items in
fiction and within the framework of major categories of deixis--- person, spatial,
temporal, discourse, social, proximal and distal--- to find out whether there is any
interrelationship among them.
5.2 Analysis of Conversational Passages from the Novel Lucky Jim
Passage I (pp.12-15)
Outside the building they turned along a gravel drive and went up to the car where it
was parked with a few others. Dixon stared about him while Welch looked
thoroughly for his keys. An ill-kept lawn ran down in front of them to a row of
amputated railings, beyond which was College Road and the town cemetery, a
conjunction responsible for some popular local jokes. Lecturers were fond of lauding
to their students the comparative receptivity to facts of' the Honours class over the
road', while the parallel between the occupations of graveyard attendant and
custodian of learning was one which often suggested itself to others besides the
students. As Dixon watched, a bus passed slowly up the hill in the mild May
sunshine, bound for the small town where the Welches lived. Dixon betted himself it
would be there before them. A roaring voice began to sing behind one of the windows above his head; it sounded like, and presumably might even be, Barclay, the
Professor of Music.
A minute later Dixon was sitting listening to a sound like the ringing of a cracked
door-bell as Welch pulled at the starter. This died away into a treble humming that
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seemed to involve every component of the car. Welch tried again; this time the
effect was of beer-bottles jerkily belaboured. Before Dixon could do more than close
his eyes he was pressed firmly back against the seat, and his cigarette, still burning,
was cuffed out of his hand into some interstice of the floor. With a tearing of gravel
under the wheels the car burst from a standstill towards the grass verge, which
Welch ran over briefly before turning down the drive. They moved towards the road
at walking pace, the engine maintaining a loud lowing sound which caused a late
group of students, most of them wearing the yellow and green College scarf, to stare
after them from the small covered-in space beside the lodge where sports notices
were posted. They climbed College Road, holding to the middle of the highway. The
unavailing hoots of a lorry behind them made Dixon look furtively at Welch, whose
face, he saw with passion, held an expression of calm assurance, like an old
quartermaster's in rough weather. Dixon shut his eyes again. He was hoping that
when Welch had made the second of the two maladroit gear-changes which lay
ahead of him, the conversation would turn in some other direction than the
academic. He even thought he'd rather hear some more about music or the doings
of Welch's sons, the effeminate writing Michel and the bearded pacifist painting
Bertrand whom Margaret had described to him. But whatever the subject for
discussion might be, Dixon knew that before the journey ended he'd find his face
becoming creased and flabby, like an old bag, with the strain of making it smile and
show interest and speak its few permitted words, of steering it between a collapse
into helpless fatigue and a tautening with anarchic fury.
'Oh... uh... Dixon.' Dixon opened his eyes, doing everything possible with the side of
his face away from Welch, everything which might help to relieve his feelings in
advance. 'Yes, Professor?' 'I was wondering about that article of yours.' 'Oh yes. I
don't...' 'Have you heard from Partington yet?' 'Well yes, actually I sent it to him first
of all, if you remember, and he said the pressure of other stuff was ...' 'What?' Dixon
had lowered his voice below the medium shout required by the noise of the car, in
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an attempt to half-conceal from Welch Welch's own lapse of memory, and so
protect himself. Now he had to bawl out: 'I told you he said he couldn't find room for
it.' 'Oh, couldn't he? Well, of course they do get a lot of the most ... a most terrific
volume of stuff sent to them, you know. Still, I suppose if anything really took their
eye, then they ... they ... Have you sent it off to anyone else?' ‘Yes, that Caton chap
who advertised in the T.L.S. a couple of months ago. Starting up a new historical
review with an international bias, or something. I thought I'd get in straight away.
After all, a new journal can't very well be bunged up as far ahead as all the ones I've
...' 'Ah yes, a new journal might be worth trying. There was one advertised in the
Times Literary Supplement a little while ago. Paton or some such name the editor
fellow was called. You might have a go at him, now that it doesn't seem as if any of
the more established reviews have got room for your ... effort. Let's see now; what's
the exact title you've given it?' Dixon looked out of the window at the fields wheeling
past, bright green after a wet April. It wasn't the double-exposure effect of the last
half-minute's talk that had dumbfounded him, for such incidents formed the staple
material of Welch colloquies; it was the prospect of reciting the title of the article
he'd written. It was a perfect title, in that it crystallized the article's niggling
mindlessness, its funereal parade of yawn-enforcing facts, the pseudo-light it threw
upon non-problems. Dixon had read, or begun to read, dozens like it, but his own
seemed worse than most in its air of being convinced of its own usefulness and
significance. 'In considering this strangely neglected topic,' it began. This what
neglected topic? This strangely what topic? This strangely neglected what? His
thinking all this without having defiled and set fire to the typescript only made him
appear to himself as more of a hypocrite and fool.' Let's see,' he echoed Welch in a
pretended effort of memory: 'oh yes; The Economic Influence of the Developments in
Shipbuilding Techniques, ijjo to 148}. After all, that's what it's ...' Unable to finish his
sentence, he looked to his left again to find a man's face staring into his own from
about nine inches away. The face, which filled with alarm as he gazed, belonged to
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the driver of a van which Welch had elected to pass on a sharp bend between two
stone walls. A huge bus now swung into view from further round the bend. Welch
slowed slightly, thus ensuring that they would still be next to the van when the bus
reached them, and said with decision: 'Well, that ought to do it nicely, I should say.'
ANALYSIS
The present text is about James Dixon, a reluctant history lecturer at a provincial
English university and his superior, the tedious Professor Welch an often absentminded and unbearably pompous dilettante. They are on Welch’s car on their way to
his house for coffee. They talk about Dixon’s article. He attempts to get his article on
the economic ramifications of medieval shipbuilding methods published in a journal,
without success.
Person Deixis
In this passage, the third person pronouns it, its, he, him, his, himself, they, them
and their occur many times. There are also examples of the first person pronoun I
and the second person pronouns you and yours.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of this, that, then and there, which illustrate spatial and
discourse deixis. That, then and there are examples of distal deixis. This and now are
examples of proximal deixis. To indicate the small town where Dixson is headed, he
deploys place deictic item there in the passage. This and that are used as anaphoric
discourse deictic markers on several occasions, which refer to the sound of the
starter and to the topic of Dixon’s article. The demonstrative that is used to refer to
Caton, the editor. Then as a discourse deictic marker is used in ‘Still, I suppose if
anything really took their eyes, then they … they…Have you sent it off to anyone
else?’.
Temporal Deixis
In this passage there are occurrences of now and this time which illustrate temporal
deixis and they have proximal value.
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Social Deixis
There is no occurrence of social deixis in the passage.
Table 1
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
99
13
120
0
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
18
81
7
6
22
98
0
0
20.26
79.74
As most events are narrated in the past and this in turn eliminates the
communication between the speaker and his addressee, the number of the distal
deictic items in this passage is more than that of the proximal deictic items.
Passage II (pp.41-43)
'What work do you do?' Dixon asked flatly. 'I am a painter. Not, alas, a painter of
houses, or I should have been able to make my pile and retire by now. No no; I paint
pictures. Not, alas again, pictures of trade unionists or town halls or naked women,
or I should now be squatting on an even larger pile. No no; just pictures, mere
pictures, pictures tout court, or, as our American cousins would say, pictures period.
And what work do you do? always provided, of course, that I have permission to
ask.'
Dixon hesitated; Bertrand's speech, which, except for its peroration, had clearly been
delivered before, had annoyed him in more ways than he'd have believed possible.
Bertrand's girl was looking at him interrogatively; her eyebrows, which were darker
than her hair, were raised, and she now said, in her rather deep voice: 'Do gratify our
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curiosity.' Bertrand's eyes, which seemed to lack the convexity of the normal eyeball,
were also fixed on him.
'I'm one of your father's underlings,' Dixon said to Bertrand, deciding he mustn't be
offensive; 'I cover the medieval angle for the History Department here.' 'Charming,
charming,' Bertrand said, and his girl said: 'You enjoy doing that, do you?' Welch,
Dixon noticed, had rejoined the group and was looking from face to face, obviously
in quest of a point of entry into the conversation. Dixon resolved to deny him this at
all costs. He said, quietly but quickly: 'Well, of course, it has its own appeal. I can
quite see that it hasn't the sort of glamour of, he turned to the girl,' your line of
country.' He must show Bertrand that he wasn't below including her in the
conversation. She looked perplexedly up at Bertrand. 'But I haven't noticed much
glamour knocking about in ...'
'But surely,' Dixon said, 'I know there must be a lot of hard work and exercise
attached to it, but the ballet, well,' he disregarded a nudge from Margaret, 'there
must be plenty of glamour there. So I've always understood, anyway.' As he spoke,
he gave Bertrand a smile of polite, comradely envy, and stirred his coffee with
civilized fingers, splaying them a good deal on the handle of the spoon. Bertrand was
going red in the face and was leaning towards him, struggling to swallow half a
bridge roll and speak. The girl repeated with genuine bewilderment: 'The ballet? But
I work in a bookshop. Whatever made you think I... ?' Johns was grinning. Even
Welch had obviously taken in what he'd said. What had he done? He was attacked
simultaneously by a pang of fear and the speculation that 'ballet' might be a private
Welch synonym for 'sexual intercourse'.
' Look here, Dickinson or whatever your name is,' Bertrand began,' perhaps you think
you're being funny, but I'd as soon you cut it out, if you don't mind. Don't want to
make a thing of it, do we?' The baying quality of his voice, especially in the final
query, together with a blurring of certain consonants, made Dixon want to call
attention to its defects, also, perhaps, to the peculiarity of his eyes. This might make
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Bertrand assail him physically - splendid: he was confident of winning any such
encounter with an artist - or would Bertrand's pacifism stop him? But in the ensuing
silence Dixon swiftly decided to back down. He'd made some mistake about the girl;
he mustn't make things any worse. 'I'm terribly sorry if I've made a mistake, but I was
under the impression that Miss Loosmore here had something to do with ...'
He turned to Margaret for aid, but before she could speak Welch, of all people, had
come in loudly with: 'Poor old Dixon, ma-ha-ha, must have been confusing this ... this
young lady with Sonia Loosmore, a friend of Bertrand's who let us all down rather
badly some time ago. I think Bertrand must have thought you were ... twitting him or
something, Dixon; ba-ha-ha.'
'Well, if he'd taken the trouble to be introduced, this wouldn't have happened,'
Bertrand said, still flushed. 'Instead of which, he...' 'Don't worry about it, Mr Dixon,'
the girl cut in. 'It was only a silly little misunderstanding. I can quite see how it
happened. My name's Christine Callaghan. Altogether different, you see.'
'Well, I'm ... thanks very much for taking it like that. I'm very sorry about it, really I
am.'
'No no, don't let it get you down, Dixon,' Bertrand said, with a glance at his girl.' If
you'll excuse us, I think we might circulate round the company.' They moved off,
followed at a distance by Johns, towards the Goldsmith group, and Dixon was left
alone with Margaret.
'Here, have a cigarette,' she said. 'You must be needing one. God, what a swine
Bertrand is. He might have realized...'
'It was my fault, really,' Dixon said, grateful for nicotine and support. 'I should have
been there to be introduced.' 'Yes, why weren't you? But he needn't have made it
worse. But that's typical of him, as far as I can gather.'
'I sort of couldn't face meeting him. How often have you met him?'
'He came down once before, with the Loosmore girl. I say, it is rather queer, isn't it?
He was going to marry the Loosmore then, and now here he is with a new piece. Yes,
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of course; Neddy gave me a long harangue about when the Loosmore wedding was
coming off, and so on, only a couple of days ago. So as far as he knew ...'
'Look, Margaret, can't we go out for a drink? I need one, and we shan't get one here.
It's only just eight; we could be back...'
Margaret laughed, so that he could see a large number of her teeth, one canine
flecked with lipstick. She always made up just a little too heavily. 'Oh, James, you're
incorrigible,' she said. 'Whatever next? Of course we can't go out; what do you
suppose the Neddies would think? Just as their brilliant son's arrived? You'd get a
week's notice like a shot.’
‘Yes, you're right, I admit. But I'd give anything for three quick pints. I've had nothing
since the one I had down the road yesterday evening, before I showed up here.'
‘Much better for your pocket not to have them.’ She began to laugh again. ‘You were
wonderful in the madrigals. Your best performance yet.’
ANALYSIS
Welch invites Jim to attend a weekend party at his house. On the arrival at Welch’s
house, he is forced to join in the communal singing and to sit through a lengthy
musical recital. He also meets Welch’s son Bertrand, a pretentious novelist, and his
girlfriend, Christine. But the meeting doesn’t go well because of some
misunderstandings among them.
Person Deixis
In the present text, there are examples of the first person pronouns I, my, we
and
our, the second person pronouns you and your and the third person
pronouns he, him, his, she, her, it, its, they, their and them.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
This, that, here and there are examples of spatial and discourse deixis in the
text. This and here have proximal value. There and that have distal value. The
speakers use the proximal place deictic item here to refer to the city they live and to
the house where the party is held. The distal place deictic item there is used to refer
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to ballet business and to Welch’s house. Welch uses a pointing gestural strategy by
using the demonstrative this in ‘this young lady’. There are some examples of this
and that as anaphoric discourse deictic markers like ‘Well, if he’d taken the trouble
to be introduced, this wouldn’t have happened,’ and ‘You enjoy doing that, do you?’.
Temporal Deixis
In the text there are occurrences of now, before, yesterday evening and then which
illustrate time deixis. Nowhas proximal value and refers to the time at which the
speakers are making the utterance. Before, yesterday evening and then have distal
value. Then and before are used here to refer to the time at which Bertrand was
going to marry a lady but it did not happen.
Social Deixis
There are two occurrences of distal social deixis Mr. Dixon and Miss Loosmore in the
present text.
Table 2
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
146
17
166
2
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
73
73
12
5
72
94
0
2
47.43
52.57
The effect of proximity is acquired by Dixon through the use of here several times in
the text, which connects him to the Welch house that he is right now.
Passage III (pp.67-70)
'Aren't you going to have any of this stuff?' the girl asked.
'Well, not yet, I don't think.'
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'What's the matter? Aren't you feeling so good?'
'No, not really, I must admit. Bit of a headache, you know.' 'Oh, then you did go to
the pub, like that little man said -what was his name?'
'Johns,' Dixon said, trying to suggest by his articulation of the name the correct
opinion of its bearer.' Yes, I did go to the pub.'
‘You had a lot, did you?' In her interest she stopped eating, but still gripped her knife
and fork, her fists resting on the cloth. He noticed that her fingers were squaretipped, with the nails cut quite close.
'I suppose I must have done, yes,' he replied.
'How much did you have?'
‘Oh, I never count them. It's a bad habit, is counting them.' 'Yes, I dare say, but how
many do you think it was? Roughly.'
Ooh ... seven or eight, possibly.'
'Beers, that is, is it?'
'Good Lord, yes. Do I look as if I can afford spirits?'
'Pints of beer?'
‘Yes.' He smiled slightly, thinking she didn't seem such a bad sort after all, and that
the slight blueness of the whites of her eyes helped to give her look of health. He
changed his mind abruptly about the first of these observations, and lost interest in
the second, when she replied:
‘Well, if you drink as much as that you must expect to feel a bit off colour the next
day, mustn't you?' She drew herself upright in her seat in a schoolmarmy attitude.
He remembered his father, who until the war had always worn stiff white collars,
being reproved by the objurgatory jeweller as excessively 'dignant' in demeanour.
This etymological sport expressed for Dixon exactly what he objected to in Christine.
He said rather coldly: 'Yes, I must, mustn't I?' It was an idiom he'd caught from Carol
Goldsmith. Thinking of her made him think, for the first time that morning, of the
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embrace he'd witnessed the night before, and he realized that it had its bearing on
this girl as well as on Goldsmith. Well, she could obviously take care of herself.
'Everybody was wondering where you'd got to,' she said.
'I've no doubt they were. Tell me: how did Mr Welch react?'
'What, to finding out you'd probably gone to the pub?'
'Yes. Did he seem irritated at all?'
'I really have no idea.' Conscious, possibly, that this must sound rather bald, she
added: 'I don't know him at all, you see, and so I couldn't really tell. He didn't seem
to notice much, if you see what I mean.’
Dixon saw. He felt too that he could tackle the eggs and bacon and tomatoes now, so
went to get some and said:' Well, that's a relief, I must say. I shall have to apologize
to him, I suppose.'
‘It might be a good idea.'
She said this in a tone that made him turn his back for a moment at the sideboard
and make his Chinese mandarin's face, hunching his shoulders a little. He disliked
this girl and her boy-friend so much that he couldn't understand why they didn't
dislike each other. Suddenly he remembered the bedclothes; how could he have
been such a fool? He couldn't possibly leave them like that. He must do something
else to them. He must get up to his room quickly and look at them and see what
ideas their physical presence suggested. ‘God,' he said absently; 'oh my God,' then,
pulling himself together: 'I'm afraid I shall have to dash off now.'
'Have you got to get back?'
'No, I'm not actually going until... No, I mean there's ... I've got to go upstairs.'
Realizing that this was a poor exit-line, he said wildly, still holding a dish-cover:
'There's something wrong with my room, something I must alter.' He looked at her
and saw her eyes were dilated. 'I had a fire last night.'
‘You lit a fire in your bedroom?’
'No, I didn't light it purposely, I lit it with a cigarette. It caught fire on its own.'
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Her expression changed again. 'Your bedroom caught fire?'
'No, only the bed. I lit it with a cigarette.'
'You mean you set fire to your bed?'
‘That's right.'
'With a cigarette? Not meaning to? Why didn't you put it out?'
'I was asleep. I didn't know about it till I woke up.'
'But you must have ... Didn't it burn you?'
He put the dish-cover down. 'It doesn't seem to have done.'
'Oh, that's something, anyway.' She looked at him with her lips pressed firmly
together, then laughed in a way quite different from the way she'd laughed the
previous evening; in fact, Dixon thought, rather unmusically. A blonde lock came
away from the devotedly-brushed hair and she smoothed it back. 'Well, what are
you going to do about it?'
'I don't know yet. I must do something, though.'
'Yes, I quite agree. You'd better start on it quickly, hadn't you, before the maid goes
round?'
'I know. But what can I do?'
'How bad is it?'
'Bad enough. There are great pieces gone altogether, you see.'
'Oh. Well, I don't really know what to suggest without seeing it. Unless you... no; that
wouldn't help.'
'Look, I suppose you wouldn't come up and...?'
'Have a look at it?'
'Yes. Do you think you could?'
She sat up again and thought 'Yes, all right. I don't guarantee anything, of
course.''No, of course not.' He remembered with joy that he still had some cigarettes
left after last night's holocaust. "Thanks very much.'
They were moving to the door when she said: 'What about your breakfast?'
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‘Oh, I shall have to miss that. There's not time.'
'I shouldn't if I were you. They don't give you much for lunch here, you know.'
'But I'm not going to wait till... I mean there isn't much time to ... Wait a minute.' He
darted back to the sideboard, picked up a slippery fried egg and slid it into his mouth
whole.
ANALYSIS
The passage is about Dixon who gets up in the morning after a drunken night and he
finds out that he lit his bed with a cigarette and burnt the bed sheet and blankets. He
gets Christine’s help, a girl who is dating Professor Welch’s son Bertrand, to hide it
before the maid go round.
Person Deixis
The occurrence of the first person pronouns I and my and the second person
pronouns you and your is less than the occurrence of the third person pronouns in
the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of this, that, then, these and here, which refer to spatial and
discourse deixis. That, then and these are examples of distal deixis. This and here are
examples of proximal deixis. The proximal spatial deictic marker this is used to point
out the breakfast on the table. That and this are employed as anaphoric discourse
deictic markers in ‘Realizing that this was a poor exit line, he said wildly, still holding
a dish cover’ and ‘Well, that’s a relief, I must say’. Here is used as a place deictic
marker, which refers to Welch house. The proximal demonstrative these points out
to the observations that Dixon has about Callaghan girl. There are some occurrences
of there as existential there and not as a place deictic marker. For example,
(101) ‘Oh, I shall have to miss that. There’s not time.’
Temporal Deixis
Now is deployed twice in the text as proximal time deixis, which refers to the present
time including the time of the utterance. Then, last night, that morning and next
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dayhave distal value and refer to the time before or after the time of the utterance
in the passage.
Social Deixis
There is one example of distal social deixis, Mr. Welsh, in the present text.
Table 3
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
189
18
186
1
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
85
104
9
9
79
107
0
1
Proximal
43.91
Distal
56.09
The table shows the equality between the numbers of spatial and discourse proximal
deictic devices and distal deictic devices, which cannot be ignored.
Passage IV (pp.81-84)
Welch sat down at his misleadingly littered desk. 'Oh ... uh ... Dixon.'
'Yes, Professor?'
'I've ... about this article of yours.'
With all his incoherences, Welch was always straightforward when reproofs were to
be delivered, so that this remark was comparatively encouraging. Dixon said
guardedly: 'Oh yes?'
'I was having a chat the other day with an old friend of mine from South Wales. The
Professor at the University College of Abertawe, he is now. Athro Haines; I expect
you know his book on medieval Cwmrhydyceirw.'
Dixon said 'Oh yes' in a different tone, but still guardedly. He wanted to indicate
eager and devout recognition that should not at the same time imply first-hand
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knowledge of the work in question, in case Welch should demand an epitome of its
argument.
'Of course, their problems down there are very different from ... from ... The Pass
classes in particular. He was telling me ... It seems that in the first year everybody,
doesn't matter whether they're going to go on with History or not, they all have to
get through a certain amount of ...'
Dixon switched off most of his attention, just keeping enough of it going to enable
him to nod at proper intervals. He felt relieved; nothing really bad was going to
happen, whatever might prove to be the bridge over the fast-widening gap between
his article and this Haines character. A resolve began to form in his mind, frightening
him before he could properly identify it. Now that he was alone with Welch, he'd
have a show-down with him, force him to reveal what had been decided about his
future, or, if nothing was definite yet, when it would be definite and what issue was
going to make it definite. He was tired of being blackmailed, by the hope of
improving his chances, into grubbing about in the public library for material that
'might come in handy' for Welch's book on local history, into 'just glancing through'
(i.e. correcting) the proofs of a long article Welch was having printed in a local
journal of antiquities, into holding himself in readiness to attend a folk-dancing
conference (thank God he hadn't had to go after all), into attending that terrible arty
week-end last month, into agreeing to lecture on Merrie England- especially that.
And it was getting very late in the term: less than a month to go. Somehow he must
mortar or bayonet Welch out of his prepared positions of reticence, irrelevance, and
the long-lived, wondering frown.
Welch suddenly made him switch everything on again by saying: 'Apparently this
Caton fellow was in for the chair at Abertawe at the same time as Haines, three or
four years ago it must be now. Well, naturally Haines couldn't tell me much, but he
gave me the impression that Caton might well have got the chair instead of him, only
there was something rather shady about him, you see. Don't let this out, will you,
279
Dixon? but there was something like a forged testimonial or something of the sort, I
gathered. Something rather shady, anyway. Now, of course, this journal of his may
be quite above-board and so on, I'm not saying it isn't; it may be quite ... aboveboard. But I thought I ought to let you know about this, Dixon, so that you can take
any action you think... you think you ... you think fit, you ...'
'Well, thank you very much, Professor, it's very good of you to warn me. Perhaps I'd
better write to him again and ask...'
‘You haven't had a reply to your letter asking for something definite about when he's
publishing your thing?'
'No, not a word.'
'Well then, you must certainly write to him again, Dixon, and say you must have a
definite date of publication. Say you've had an inquiry from another journal about
what you're writing. Say you must know definitely within a week.' Such fluency, like
the keen glance which accompanied it, Welch seemed to reserve specially for telling
people what to do.
‘I’ll certainly do that, yes.'
'Do it today, will you, Dixon?'
'Yes, I will'
'After all, it's important to you, isn't it?'
This was the cue he'd been hoping for. 'Yes, sir. Actually I've been meaning to ask
you about that.'
Welch's shaggy eyebrows descended a little. 'About what?'
'Well, I'm sure you appreciate, Professor, that I've been worrying rather about my
position here, in the last few months.'
'Oh yes?' Welch said cheerfully, his eyebrows restored.
'I've been wondering just how I stand, you know.'
'How you stand?'
280
'Yes, I... I mean, I'm afraid I got off on the wrong foot here rather, when I first came. I
did some rather silly things. Well, now that my first year's nearly over, naturally I
can't help feeling a bit anxious.'
'Yes, I know a lot of young chaps find some difficulty in settling down to their first
job. It's only to be expected, after a war, after all. I don't know if you've ever met
young Faulkner, at Nottingham he is now; he got a job here in nineteen hundred',
here he paused, 'and forty-five. Well, he'd had rather a rough time in the war, what
with one thing and another; he'd been out East for a time, you know, in the Fleet Air
Arm he was, and then they switched him back to the Mediterranean. I remember
him telling me how difficult he found it to adapt his way of thinking, when he had to
settle down here and …’
Stop himself from dashing his fist into your face, Dixon thought He waited for a time,
then, when Welch produced another of his pauses, said: 'Yes, and of course it's
doubly difficult when one doesn't feel very secure in one's - I'd work much better, I
know, if I could feel settled about...'
'Well, insecurity is the great enemy of concentration, I know. And, of course, one
does tend to lose the habit of concentration as one grows older. It's amazing how
distractions one wouldn't have noticed in one's early days become absolutely
shattering when one ... grows older. I remember when they were putting up the new
chemistry labs here, well, I say new, you could hardly call them new now, I suppose.
At the time I'm speaking of, some years before the war, they were laying the
foundations about Easter time it must have been, and the concrete-mixer or
whatever it was ...'
Dixon wondered if Welch could hear him grinding his teeth. If he did, he gave no sign
of it. Like a boxer still incredibly on his feet after ten rounds of punishment, Dixon
got in with:' I could feel quite happy about everything, if only my big worry were out
of the way.'
281
Welch's head lifted slowly, like the muzzle of some obsolete howitzer. The
wondering frown quickly began to form. 'I don't quite see ...'
'My probation,' Dixon said loudly.
The frown cleared. 'Oh. That. You're on two years' probation here, Dixon, not one
year. It's all there in your contract, you know. Two years.'
ANALYSIS
The present text deals with Dixon and Welch meeting in his office. Welch wanted to
know about his article and whether he has had a reply to his letter asking for some
definite time when they are publishing his article. As Dixon was worried about his
position there in the college, he tried to ask him and get some convincing reasons
from him for his longer stay in the college.
Person Deixis
The first person pronouns I, my and me, the second person pronouns you and your
and the third person pronouns he, him, his, himself, it, they, them and theirare used
a number of times.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are examples of this, that, then, here and there in the text. As Welch talks to
Dixon about his friend the professor Athro Haines he exploits there as a place deictic
marker to indicate the University College of Abertaw where he stays as the person in
charge. He exploits there as a place deictic marker to refer to Dixon’s contract
too. Here is used as a proximal place deictic marker, which refers to history
Department at the University where Welch and Dixon work together. There are
examples of anaphoric discourse deictic marker this referring to Dixon’s article,
Welch’s remark, Haines the professor, Caton the editor of a journal. In ‘Don’t let this
out, will you, Dixon?’ thisis used as a cataphoric discourse deixis referring to
something like a forged testimonial. There are also examples of demonstrative that
illustrating anaphoric discourse deixis in ‘I’ll certainly do that, yes’ and ‘I’ve been
meaning to ask you about that’.
282
Temporal Deixis
In this passage there are occurrences of now and today which have proximal value
and refer to the present time including the time of the utterance. Then and last
month have distal value. Then refers to the time when Faulkner a lecturer in the
department was switched back to the Mediterranean at war time.
Social Deixis
There is one occurrence of distal social deixis in ‘Yes, sir. Actually I’ve been meaning
to ask you about that’. Sir brings the respect and inequality in position between
Dixon and The head of the department Welsh.
Table 4
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
162
23
165
1
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
78
84
15
8
87
78
0
1
51.28
48.72
The text is a conversation between Dixon and Welsh about his article and their
opinions about it, which makes the number of proximal deictic devices more than
distal deictic devices in the table.
Passage V (pp.92-95)
Luckily, the Registrar's Clerk, another very bad man, wasn't in his room. Dixon picked
up the phone and said: 'Dixon here.'
'Intermediate Geology, that's right, yes,' a voice said comfortably. 'Who's that?'
another said. A buzzing followed, terminated by an eardrum-cracking click. When
283
Dixon had got hold of the receiver again and put it to his other ear, he heard the
second voice say: 'Is that Mr Jackson?'
'Dixon here.'
'Who?' It was a vaguely familiar voice, but not Mrs Welch's; it sounded like an
adolescent girl's.
'Dixon. I'm taking the message for Professor Welch.'
'Oh, Mr Dixon, of course.' There was a noise which might have been a smothered
snort of laughter.' I might have guessed it'd be you. This is Christine Callaghan.'
‘Oh, hallo, er, how are you?' The apparent deliquescence of the bowel that
recognition brought on was only momentary; he knew he could deal with her voice
creditably enough while the rest of her remained, presumably, in London.
‘I’m fine, thanks. How are you? I hope you've had no more trouble with your
bedclothes?'
Dixon laughed. 'No, I'm glad to say that's all blown over; touch wood.'
'Oh, good ... Look, is there any way of getting hold of Professor Welch, do you know?
Isn't he anywhere in the University?'
'He hasn't been in all the morning, I'm afraid. He's almost certain to be at home now.
Or have you tried there?'
'Oh, how annoying. Perhaps you can tell me, though: do you know if he's expecting
Bertrand down?'
'Well, yes, as it happens I do know that Bertrand's coming down at the week-end.
Margaret Peel told me.' Dixon's equanimity had departed; evidently this girl didn't
know she'd been junked by Bertrand, at least as far as the Summer Ball was
concerned. Answering her questions about Bertrand was going to be tricky.
'Who told you?' Her voice had sharpened a little.
'You know, Margaret Peel. The girl who was staying with the Welches when you
came down that time.'
284
‘Oh yes, I see ... Did she happen to mention whether Bertrand will be going to your
Summer Ball affair?'
Dixon thought quickly; no questions about Bertrand's possible partner must be
asked. 'No, I'm afraid not. But everybody else'll be going, anyway.' Why didn't she
get hold of Bertrand and ask him?
'I see ... But he is definitely coming down?'
'Apparently.'
She must have sensed his puzzlement, because she now said: 'I expect you're
wondering why I don't ask Bertrand himself. Well, you see, he's often rather a
difficult chap to get hold of. At the moment he's just sort of gone off, nobody knows
where. He likes to come and go when he feels like it, hates being tied down and all
that. Do you see?'
‘Yes, of course.' Dixon bunched his free hand and waggled its first two fingers.
'So I thought I'd see if his father knew where he was or anything. The whole point is,
what I really wanted to know is this. My Uncle, Mr Gore-Urquhart, got back from
Paris sooner than he expected, and he's got an invitation from your Principal to the
Summer Ball thing. He doesn't really know whether to come or not. Well, I could
persuade him to come if Bertrand and I were going, and then Bertrand and he could
get to know each other, and Bertrand wants that. But I must know soon, because it's
the day after tomorrow and Uncle would want to know in good time, where he's to
spend the week-end, I mean. So... well, it's rather a mix-up, I'm afraid.'
'Can't Mrs Welch throw any light on the matter?'
There was a pause. 'I've not actually been on to her.'
'Well, she's bound to know more about it than I do, isn't she? ... Hallo?'
'I'm still here ... Listen, keep this quiet, won't you? but I'd like not to get on to her if I
can find out any other way. I... we didn't hit it off too well when I stayed. I don't
want to have to, well, discuss Bertrand with her over the phone. I think she thinksI'm ... Never mind; but you see what I mean?'
285
'I do indeed. I don't hit it off too well with the lady either, as a matter of fact. Now
I've got a suggestion. I'll ring up the Welches for you now and get the Professor to
ring you. If he's not there I'll leave a message or something. Anyway I'll see to it,
somehow or other, that Mrs Welch doesn't get involved.
If it's no good I'll ring you back myself and tell you. Will that do, now?'
'Oh, that'd be lovely, thanks so much. What a marvellous idea. Here's my number;
it's the place I work at, so I shan't be there after five-thirty. Ready?'
While he took it down, Dixon assured himself several times that Mrs Welch couldn't
have found out about the sheet or the table, or Margaret would surely have warned
him. How nice this girl was being to him, he thought. 'Right, I've got that,' he said
finally.
'It's damn good of you to do this for me,' the girl said with animation. 'But doesn't it
make me out a bit of a fool, you taking all this trouble just to save me ...?'
'Not in the least. I know exactly what these things are like.' None better, he told
himself.
'Well, I am grateful, really. I just couldn't face ...'
A sort of Morse signal fell between these sentences, and then a rushing noise
supervened. A woman's voice said: 'Your second three minutes are up, caller. Do you
require a further three minutes?'
Before Dixon could speak, Christine Callaghan had said: 'Yes, please, leave me
through, will you?'
The rushing noise stopped. 'Hallo?' Dixon said.
'I'm still here.'
'Look, isn't this costing you a packet?'
'Not me; only the shop.' She gave one of her laughs, the non-silver-bells sort. Over
the phone its cacophony was more noticeable.
Dixon laughed too. 'Well, I hope this business comes off all fight; it would be an
awful shame if it didn't, after all these preparations.'
286
'Yes, wouldn't it? Will you be going to the Ball thing?'
'Yes, I'm afraid so.'
'Afraid so?'
‘Well, I'm not really much of a dancing you know. It'll be a bit of an ordeal for me, I'm
afraid.’
ANALYSIS
The passage is about the phone conversation between Dixon and Christine,
Bertrand’s girlfriend. Christine called University to talk to Professor Welch because
she couldn’t find Bertrand anywhere. He wasn’t there and Dixon answered the
phone. There was a Summer Ball and Christine’s uncle, a wealthy and wellconnected man, was invited. As Bertrand really wanted to meet him, she thought if
his father knew where he was to make sure that he is coming to the Summer Ball.
Person Deixis
The
occurrences
of
examples
of
the
third
person
pronoun he, his, him, himself, she, her and it are fewer than the occurrences of
examples of the first person pronoun I, me, my, myself and we and the second
person pronoun you and yourin the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
Here, there, this, that, these are used a number of times, which illustrate spatial and
discourse deixis.
To refer to the place where Dixon stays right now, he exploits the proximal place
deictic marker here and to refer to Welch’s house and Christine’s work place, the
distal place deictic marker thereis exploited. The proximal demonstrative these is
exploited to refer to the things that Christine is involved with and the preparations
for the Summer Ball.
That is exploited as an anaphoric discourse deictic marker on several occasions in the
passage. This and that are used as the proximal and distal exophoric discourse deictic
items in’This is Christine Callaghan’ and ‘Is that Mr. Jackson?’, which both refer to
287
the speaker. There are examples of this as the proximal cataphoric discourse deictic
item as in ‘The whole point is, what I really wanted to know is this.’, which refers to
Christina’s uncle’s Summer Ball invitation. There are some examples of there as an
existential device and not a deictic marker in the text.
Temporal Deixis
There are occurrences of now as time deixis, which has proximal value. As Christine
and Dixon talk about where and how to find Bertrand at the earliest time they use
temporal deictic marker now several times, which indicates the present time
including the time of the utterance. Some examples of distal time deixis are used
like then, tomorrow and that time in the text.
Social Deixis
To indicate the difference between the character’s social status, considering being
older or in higher position, distal social deictic markers Mr. and Mrs. are used a
number of times in the text.
Table 5
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
167
30
199
7
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
92
75
18
12
117
82
0
7
56.33
43.67
In this passage, the pattern in the fourth column regarding social deixis is different
from the other patterns. Both characters Dixon and Christine try to distance
themselves from the other characters and remove the closeness by the use of distal
deictic markers.
288
Passage VI (pp.125-128)
'Christ, haven't you been listening? I was in love. Let's go back to the bar now, shall
we? It's so noisy in here.' Her voice trembled a little, for the first time since they'd
begun talking.
'Carol, I'm terribly sorry. I shouldn't have said that.'
'Now, don't be silly, Jim, there's nothing to apologize for. It was a perfectly natural
thing to say. Don't forget, though; you've got a moral duty to perform. Get that girl
away from Bertrand; she wouldn't enjoy an affair with him. It wouldn't be her kind of
thing at all. Mind you remember that.'
Dixon found, when they got up, that he'd forgotten about the dancers and the band;
he remembered them now, however, very vividly. A tune was being played, sparing
of melodic invention, free too of any marked variation in volume, rhythm, harmony,
expression, tempo, or tone-colour, and, more or less in time with it, groups of
dancers were wheeling, plunging, and gesticulating while the ogre, more aphasic
than before, mumbled at full strength:
'Ya parp the Hawky-Cawky arnd ya tarn parp-parp, Parp what it's parp parp-parp.'
They re-entered the bar. Dixon felt that he'd been doing this for weeks. The sight of
their party still, or again, just where they'd been before made him want very much
to pitch forward on to the floor and go to sleep. Bertrand was talking; Gore-Urquhart
was listening; Margaret was laughing, only now she had a hand on Gore-Urquhart's
nearest shoulder; Christine was also probably listening to somebody, only now she
had her head in her hands. Beesley was standing at the counter, morosely and
tremulously raising a full half-pint glass to his mouth. Dixon went over to him, in
search of a break from routine, but Carol looked back and converged on him.
Greetings were exchanged again.
'What's this, Alfred?' Dixon asked. 'A bender?'
Beesley nodded without stopping drinking; then, lowering his glass at last, wiping his
mouth on his sleeve, making a face, and referring to the quality of the beer by a
289
monosyllable not in decent use, he said:' I wasn't getting anywhere in there, so I
came in here and came over here.'
'And you're getting somewhere over here, are you, Alfred?' Carol asked.
‘On the tenth half, just about,' Beesley said.
'Bloody but unbowed, eh? That's the spirit. Well, Jim, this is obviously the place for
us two - agreed? Nobody wants either of us. What's the matter? What are you
looking at?' To Dixon's slight irritation, the pseudo-drunken quality had again taken
possession of her voice and demeanour.
Beesley leaned forward; 'Come on, Jim: beer or beer?'
'Here we are and here we stay till they throw us out,' Carol said with synthetic
defiance.
'Yes, I'll just have one, thanks, but I mustn't stay,' Dixon said.
'Because you've got to go and see how dear Margaret's getting on, is that right?'
'Well, yes, I...'
'I thought I told you to let dear Margaret stew in her own juice. And how about just
using your eyes? She's enjoying herself ever so much, thank you, Mr Dixon, and
thank you, Mrs Goldsmith. And thank you, too. Now's your chance, Jim; remember
your moral duty? Thank you, Alfred; here's to you, my boy.'
'What moral duty's this, Carol?'
'Jim knows, don't you, Jim?'
Dixon looked over at the group in the corner. Margaret had taken off her glasses, a
certain sign of abandonment. Christine, her back to Dixon, was sitting as immobile as
if she'd been mummified. Bertrand, still talking, was smoking a black cigar.
Why was he doing that? A sudden douche of terror then squirted itself all over
Dixon. After a moment he realized that this was because he had a plan and was
about to carry it out. He panted a little with the enormity of it, then drained his glass
and said quaveringly: 'Here goes, then. Good-bye for now.'
290
He went over and sat down in a vacant chair next to Christine, who turned to him
with a smile; rather a rueful smile, he thought. 'Oh, hallo,' she said; 'I thought you
must have gone home.'
‘Not quite yet. You look as if you're being rather left out of things here.'
'Yes, Bertrand's always the same when he gets talking like this. But I mean, of course
he did really come here to meet Uncle.'
'I can see that.' Just at that moment Bertrand got up from his seat and, without
looking in Christine's direction, walked across to where Carol was standing with
Beesley; a faint bay of salutation could be heard. Glancing at Christine, Dixon was
favoured with the rare sight of somebody engaged in the act of flushing. He said
quickly: 'Now, listen to me, Christine. I'm going to go out and order a taxi now. It
should be here in about a quarter of an hour. You come outside then and I'll take you
back to the Welches' in it. There'll be no funny business; I can guarantee that.
Straight home to the Welches'.'
Her immediate reaction looked like anger. 'Why? Why should I?'
'Because you're fed-up, and no wonder either, that's why.' 'That's not the point. It's a
ridiculous idea. Absolutely mad.' 'Will you come? I'm ordering the taxi in any case.'
'Don't ask me that. I don't want to be asked that.' 'But I am asking you. What about
it? I'll give you twenty minutes.' He looked her in the eyes and laid his hand on her
elbow. He must be out of his mind to be talking to a girl like this like this. 'Please
come,' he said.
She snatched her arm away. 'Oh don't,' she said, as if he'd been telling her that she
had the dentist to go to in the morning.
‘I’ll wait for you,' he said in an urgent undertone. 'In the porch. Twenty minutes.
Don't forget.'
He turned and left by a route that gave a view of part of the dance-floor and band.
She wouldn't come, of course, but at any rate he'd made his gesture. In other words,
he'd thought of a way of hurting himself more severely than usual, and in public. He
291
stopped for a moment to wave good-bye to the band, then, receiving no response,
went off to find a phone.
ANALYSIS
Dixon finds out Bertrand was pursuing an affair with the wife of one of his former
colleagues. He decides to start a relationship with Christine. At the ball, Bertrand is
introduced to Sir Hector, who he hopes will publish his novel. Meanwhile, Dixon feels
that she is bored at the party and suggests her to take a taxi and leaves the party
together.
Person Deixis
The third person pronouns he, him, himself, his, she, her, herself, it, they and them
are used a number of times more than the first person pronoun and the second
person pronoun.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
Here, there, this, that and now have occurred several times, which illustrate spatial
and discourse deixis. Distal demonstrative that is gesturally used to refer to Christine
in ‘Get that girl away from Bertrand’. There are occurrences of that, which illustrate
anaphoric discourse deixis and points to the preceding part of the sentence as in
‘That’s not the point. It’s a ridiculous idea. Absolutely mad’. There is one example
of there as a distal place deictic marker referring to the dance floor and there in
‘Now, don’t be silly, Jim, there’s nothing to apologize for’ is an existential there. Here
as a proximal spatial deictic device is used on several occasions referring to the
dance floor, the bar and the Ball party. This has the effect of being a cataphoric
discourse deictic marker in ‘What’s this, Alfred?’ Dixon asked. ‘A bender?’, but in
‘Well Jim, this is obviously the place for us too- agreed?’ it is a proximal spatial
deictic device.
Now is also used as a sentence initial on some occasions and not a temporal deictic
marker. Consider the following.
292
(102) He said quickly: ‘Now listen to me, Christine. I’m going to go out and order a
taxi now’.
The first now is a sentence initial and the second now is a proximal temporal deictic
device here.
Temporal Deixis
There are occurrences of now, then and before in this passage, which illustrate
temporal deixis. Now has proximal value and then and before have distal value.
Repetition of now indicates succession of events and activities that the characters do
at the Summer Ball party.
Social Deixis
There are two examples of distal social deictic marker Mr. Dixon and Mrs.Goldsmith
and two examples of proximal social deictic marker dear Margaret in the present
text.
Table 6
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
135
36
173
4
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
58
77
22
14
71
102
2
2
43.97
56.03
The pattern in the second column is different from the other columns, which cannot
be ignored. The number of proximal deictic devices in the second column is more
than that of the distal deictic devices. In the passage the whole conversation
happens in the bar and the characters use a lot of proximal deictic devices to link
themselves to the place they are and bring the closeness among each other.
293
Passage VII (pp.133-136)
'That was all very efficient,' Christine said. 'You're getting good at this sort of thing,
aren't you? First the table, then the Evening Post thing, and now this.'
'I didn't use to be. By the way, I hope you don't object too much to the way I got hold
of this taxi.'
'I've got into it, haven't I?'
‘Yes, I know, but I should have thought the method would strike you as unethical'
'It does, at least it would in the ordinary way, but it was more important for us to get
a taxi than for them, wasn't it?'
'I'm glad you look at it like that.' He brooded on her use of the word ‘important’ for a
moment, then realized that he didn't much care for her easy acquiescence in his
piratical treatment of the Barclays' taxi. Even he now felt it had been a bit thick, and
she presumably hadn't his excuse for wanting a taxi very badly. Like both the pretty
women he'd known, and many that he'd only read about, she thought it was no
more than fair that one man should cheat and another be cheated to serve her
convenience. She ought to have objected, refused to go with him, insisted on
returning and handing the taxi over to the Barclays, walked back, revolted by his
unscrupulousness, into the dance. Yes, he'd have liked that, wouldn't he? Ay, proper
champion that would have been, lad. His hand flew to his mouth in the darkness to
stifle his laughter; to side-track it, he began distilling alarm from the thought that
he'd have to find something to talk to this girl about all the way back to the
Welches'. The only thing he felt at all clear about was the fact that this abduction of
her was a blow struck against Bertrand, but it seemed less than prudent to begin
there. Why had she consented to ditch her boy-friend in this emphatic way? There
were several possible answers. Perhaps he could start with that. 'Did you manage to
get away all right?' he asked.
'Oh yes; nobody seemed to object very much.'
'What did you say to them?'
294
'I just explained things to Uncle Julius - he never minds what I do - and then I just
told Bertrand I was going.'
'How did he react to that?'
'He said, "Oh, don't do that, I'll be with you in a minute." Then he went on talking to
Mrs Goldsmith and Uncle. So I came away then.'
'I see. It all sounds very easy and quick.'
'Oh, it was.'
'Well, I'm very glad you decided to come with me after all.'
'Good. I couldn't help feeling guilty rather, at first, about walking out on them all, but
that's worn off now.'
'Good. What finally made you make up your mind?'
After a silence, she said: 'I wasn't enjoying it much in there, as you know, and I
started feeling awfully tired, and it didn't look as if Bertrand could leave for some
time, so I thought I'd come along with you.'
She said this in her best schoolmistressy way, elocution-mistressy in fact, so Dixon
repeated as stiffly: 'I see.' In the light of a street-lamp he could see her sitting, as
he'd expected, on the very edge of the seat. That was that, then.
She suddenly broke in again in her other manner, the one he associated with their
phone conversation: 'No, I'm not going to try and get away with that. That's only a
part of it. I don't see why I shouldn't tell you a bit more. I left because I was feeling
absolutely fed-up with everything.'
‘That's a bit sweeping. What had fed you up in particular?’
'Everything. I was absolutely fed-up. I don't see why I shouldn't tell you this. I've
been feeling very depressed recently, and it all seemed to get too much for me
tonight.'
'A girl like you's got no call to be depressed about anything, Christine,' Dixon said
warmly, then at once fell against the window and banged his elbow smartly on the
door as the taxi lurched aside in front of a row of petrol pumps. Behind these was an
295
unlit building with a painted sign, faintly visible, reading Car's for hire - Eatesons Repair's. Dixon got out, ran to a large wooden door, and began to pound irregularly
upon it, wondering whether, or how soon, to add shouts to his summons. While he
waited, he ran over in his mind some handy all-purpose phrases of abusive or
menacing tendency against the appearance of a garage-man unwilling to serve him.
A minute passed; he went on thumping while the taxi-driver slowly joined him, his
very presence a self-righteously pessimistic comment. Dixon laid down for himself
the general lines of an appropriate face, involving free and unusual use of the lips
and tongue and endorsed by manual gestures. Just then a light sprang up inside and
very quickly the door was opened. A man appeared and declared himself able and
willing to serve petrol. During the next couple of minutes Dixon was thinking not
about this man but about Christine. He was filled with awe at the thought that she
seemed, not only not todislike him to any significant extent, but to trust him as well
And how wonderful she was, and how lucky he was to have her there. The
admissions, the implied confessions about his feelings for her he'd made to Carol,
had seemed outlandish at the time; now they seemed perfectly natural and just. The
next half-hour or so formed the only chance he'd ever have of doing anything
whatever about those feelings. For once in his life Dixon resolved to bet on his luck.
What luck had come his way in the past he'd distrusted, stingily held on to until the
chance of losing his initial gain was safely past. It was time to stop doing that.
Dixon paid the garage-man and the taxi moved off. 'You haven't any reason to be
depressed, I was saying,' he said.
'I don't see how you can know that,' she said, severely again.
'No, of course I can't know it, but I shouldn't think you have too bad a time on the
whole,' he said with an ease that surprised him. He could see that she needed time
and encouragement to work back to her more open manner, and reflected that this
sort of perception was as unfamiliar in him as all the other things he was feeling. 'I'd
have put you down as somebody reasonably successful in most things.'
296
'I didn't mean to sound like a martyr. You're right, of course, I do have a good time
and I've been very lucky in all sorts of ways. But, you know, I do find some things
awfully difficult. I don't really know my way around, you know.'
Dixon wanted to laugh. He couldn't imagine any woman of her age less in need of
such lore. He said as much.
'No, it's perfectly true,' she insisted. 'I haven't had a chance to find out yet.'
'You mustn't mind me saying this, but I should have thought there'd be plenty of
people only too willing to show you.'
ANALYSIS
Dixon and Christine are becoming attracted to one another, and leave the Ball
together. Dixon hires a taxi and takes Christine home and she invites him inside.
Person Deixis
In this passage the number of the first person pronouns I, me and us and the second
person pronouns you and your is fewer than the number of the third person
pronouns he, his, him, himself, she, her, it, they, them and their, which are used on
some occasions.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
This, that, there, then, these and those occur in this passage, which illustrate spatial
and discourse deixis. This and these have proximal value. That, those, thenand there
have distal value. There is a place deictic item that refers to the Summer Ball party
where Dixon and the others were invited and to the taxi where Dixon and Christine
are on their way to Welch house. These and those are proximal and distal
demonstratives, which the first one points out the petrol pumps where they stopped
to get some petrol and the second one points out Dixon’s feelings for
Christine. That is used as an anaphoric discourse deictic item on several occasions as
in ‘How did he react to that?’ and ‘That’s a bit sweeping. What had fed you up in
particular?’. This is an example of the proximal exophoric discourse deictic marker in
‘The only thing he felt at all clear about was the fact that this abduction of her was a
297
blow struck against Bertrand’ something is happening in Dixon’s mind and even that
happened in the past, which is mentally close to him.
Demonstrative this is used as a cataphoric discourse deictic item in ‘I don’t see why I
shouldn’t tell you this’ and ‘You mustn’t mind me saying this’ referring to Christine’s
state of mind. There are examples of distal discourse deictic marker then as in ‘That
was that, then’, which is used here to end the conversation.
Temporal Deixis
Now and then occur in the passage, which illustrate time deixis. Nowrefers to the
present time including the time of the utterance and then refers to the time before
the time of the utterance.
Social deixis
There is one occurrence of distal social deictic item Mrs. Goldsmith in the passage,
which is used to refer to the difference between the social status of the characters.
Table 7
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
180
33
184
1
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
74
106
12
21
48
136
0
1
33.67
66.33
The total number of distal deictic markers is more than that of proximal deictic
markers in all columns which reveals the authenticity of Elam’s claim regarding the
frequency of distal and proximal deictic devices in fiction.
298
Passage VIII (pp.183-185)
Dixon was savouring his defensive triumph. He'd remember the advantages of
pretending misunderstanding in this situation. And it was now clear, too, that
Bertrand had got nothing out of Christine. 'Has that cleared things up at all?' he
asked the others politely.
Mrs Welch began to go red again. 'I think I'll just go and see how your father's
getting on, darling,' she said.' There are one or two things I want him to ...' Leaving
the sentence in the air, she went out.
Bertrand moved a pace closer. ‘We’ll forget all about that business,' he said
generously. 'Now, I've been wanting us to have a little get-together for quite some
time, old boy. Ever since that Ball affair, in fact. Now look here: here's a question for
you, and I don't mind telling you I mean to get a straight answer. What precisely was
your game the other evening when you induced Christine to skip out of the dance
with you? A straight answer, mind.'
This must all have been clearly audible to Christine, who now came down the room
with Margaret. Both girls avoided Dixon's eye while they went out, leaving him alone
with Bertrand. When the door was shut, Dixon said: 'I can't give any sort of answer,
straight or crooked, to a meaningless question. What do you mean, what was my
game? I wasn't playing any sort of game.'
‘You know what I mean as well as I do. What were you up to?'
'You'd better ask Christine that.'
'We'll leave her out of this, if you don't mind.'
‘Why should I mind?' Dixon, in spite of the thought of how Mrs Welch's bill would
gobble up his bank-balance, suddenly began to exult. The preliminary manoeuvrings,
the cold war between himself and Bertrand, were over at least. This was the whiff of
grapeshot.
‘Don’t be funny, Dixon. Just tell me what was going on, will you? or I shall have to try
something a little more forcible.'
299
'Don't you be funny, either. What do you want to know?'
Bertrand clenched his fist; then, when Dixon took off his glasses and squared his
shoulders, unclenched it again. Dixon put his glasses back on. 'I want to know ...'
Bertrand said, then hesitated.
'What my game was? We've been into that.' ‘Shut up. What did you intend doing
with Christine, that's what I want to know.'
'I intended doing exactly what I did do. I intended to go away from that place with
Christine, to bring her back here in a taxi, and finally to return to my digs in the same
taxi. That's what I did do.'
'Well, I'm not having that, do you understand?' 'It's too late not to have it. You've
had it already.' 'Now just you get this straight in your head, Dixon. I've had enough of
your merry little quips. Christine is my girl and she stays my girl, got mam?'
'If you mean do I follow your line of thought, I do.' ‘That’s splendid. Well, if I find you
playing this sort of trick again, or any sort of bloody clever trick, I'll break your
horrible neck for you and get you dismissed from your job as well. Understand?'
'Yes, I understand all right, but you're wrong if you think I'll let you break my neck for
me, and if you think they chuck people out of academic jobs for taking their
professors' sons' girl-friends home in taxis, then you're even more wrong, if
possible.'
Bertrand's reply reassured Dixon that Bertrand hadn't so far found out from his
father about Dixon's present standing in the eyes of College authority. The reply
was:' Don’t think you can defy me and get away with it, Dixon. People never do.'
‘People are beginning to, Welch. You must realize that it's up to Christine whether
she sees any more of me. If you feel you must threaten someone, go and threaten
her.'
Bertrand suddenly yelled out hi a near-falsetto bay: 'I've had about enough of you,
you little bastard. I won't stand any more of it, do you hear? To think of a lousy little
philistine like you coming and monkeying about in my affairs, it's enough to... Get
300
out and stay out, before you get hurt. Leave my girl alone, you're wasting your time,
you're wasting her time, you're wasting my time. What the hell do you mean by
buggering about like this? You're big enough and old enough and ugly enough to
know better.'
Dixon was saved from replying by the sudden re-entry of Christine and Margaret.
The scene broke up: Christine, who seemed to be trying to flash Dixon a message he
couldn't read, took Bertrand by the arm and led him, still loudly protesting, out of
the room; Margaret silently offered Dixon a cigarette, which he took. Neither spoke
while they sat down side by side on a couch, nor for some moments afterwards.
Dixon found himself trembling a good deal. He looked at Margaret and an intolerable
weight fell upon him.
He knew now what he'd been trying to conceal from himself ever since the previous
morning, what the row with Bertrand had made him temporarily disbelieve: he and
Christine would not, after all, be able to eat tea together the following afternoon. If
he was going to eat that meal with any female apart from Miss Cutler, it would be
not Christine, but Margaret. He remembered a character in a modern novel Beesley
had lent him who was always feeling pity moving in him like sickness, or some such
jargon. The parallel was apt: he felt very ill.
‘That was about the dance business, was it?’ Margaret asked.
'Yes. He seemed to resent it all rather.'
'I'm not surprised. What was he shouting?'
'He was trying to persuade me to keep off the grass.'
'As far as she's concerned?'
'That's right.'
'Are you going to?'
'Eh?'
'Are you going to keep off the grass?'
'Yes.'
301
'Why, James?'
'Because of you.'
He'd been expecting a demonstration of some strong feeling or other here, but she
only said 'I think that's rather silly of you' in a neutral tone that wasn't ostentatiously
neutral, but simply neutral.
ANALYSIS
The present passage is about the fight between Dixon and Bertrand. Bertrand asks
Dixon about Ball night when Dixon induced Christine to leave the dance party with
him. Dixon denies it and Bertrand threaten him to break his neck next time and
dismiss him from his job.
Person Deixis
In this passage, the first person pronouns I, me, my, we and us, the second person
pronouns
you
and
your
and
the
third
person
pronouns he, his, him, himself, she, her, it, they and there are used a number of
times.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
This, that, here and now occur on several occasions, which have the value of spatial
and discourse deixis. Here is deployed as a place deictic item, which points at the
place where Bertrand and Dixon are standing and talking. That and this are used as
anaphoric discourse deictic items many times as in ‘You’d better ask Christine that’
and ‘We’ll leave her out of this, if you don’t mind’, which in both sentences these
deictic items refer to the fight between Bertrand and Dixon .
To indicate that Christine is Bertrand’s girlfriend and not anyone else, this is
deployed as a cataphoric discourse deictic marker in ‘Now just you get this straight in
your head, Dixon’. Now is also has the effect of being a proximal discourse deictic
item in the present passage.
302
Temporal Deixis
Now, the following afternoon and then are employed in the passage. Now is a
proximal deictic item and then and the following afternoon are distal deictic items,
which refer to the time before and after the time of the utterance.
Social Deixis
There are three occurrences of distal social deictic items Mrs. Welch
and MissCutler in the text.
Table 8
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
158
28
174
3
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
99
59
14
14
92
82
0
3
56.47
43.53
The table shows the equality between the number of spatial and discourse proximal
and distal deictic devices, which cannot be ignored.
Passage IX (pp.230-232)
There was nobody there. Dixon advanced to the desk, where a lot of insurance
policies lay. He pondered for a moment; had he done anything to deserve Johns's
two betrayals? The decorations added to the face of the composer on the
periodical? A harmless joke. The letter from Joe Higgins? A transparent piece of
horseplay. Dixon nodded to himself and, clutching up a handful of the insurance
policies, stuffed them into his pocket and left.
A few moments later he was descending cautiously into the boiler-house. There
seemed to be nobody about. Coal-dust cracked under his feet as he nosed about
303
among the boilers, looking for one in action. There must be one to heat the water for
the various cloakrooms. Here it was, smoking vigorously. He picked up some sort of
tool from the floor in front of it and shoved the lid aside. The policies burned very
quickly and thoroughly; there wouldn't be any sort of trace. He put the lid back and
ran up the stairs. Nobody saw him emerge.
What was he going to do now? He'd come up to College with, he realized, nothing
very clear in mind, chiefly out of a reluctance to leave Beesley's company. Now he'd
got the sack, however, he didn't want to watt about till coffee-time, when moreover
he might run into Welch or the Principal. There was really no reason why he should
ever come up here again, unless to remove his belongings. Well, that was clearly the
next job, and it could be done in one go, because he'd never brought anything to
College beyond two or three reference-books and some lecture-notes. He went back
up to his room and started getting these together. Working in his home town, he
reflected, would mean seeing less of Margaret, but not enough less, because her
home and his were only fifteen miles apart. As experience had already proved, that
was a reasonable, or not sufficiently unreasonable, journey to make for an evening
together at least once a week during vacation-time. And three months of vacation
lay just ahead.
On the way out of College, he found himself being approached by a man he didn't
quite recognize, but about whose appearance there was something familiar. This
man said: 'That was a very good lecture you gave us last night.'
'Michie,' Dixon said. 'You've shaved off your moustache.'
‘That's right. Eileen O'Shaughnessy said she was browned-off with it, so I said
farewell to it this morning.’
'Good advice, Michie. A great improvement.’
‘Thanks. I hope you're fully recovered from your fainting fit or whatever it was?’
‘Oh yes, thanks. No permanent injuries.'
'Good. We all enjoyed your lecture.'
304
‘I’m very glad to hear it.'
‘It went down like a bomb.'
'I know.'
'Pity you didn't manage to finish it.'
'Yes.'
‘Still, we got the main drift.' Michie paused while a group of strangers went by,
deluded visitors to the College's Open Week. He went on: ' I say ... don't mind me
asking this, do you? but some of us wondered if you weren't slightly ... you know ...'
'Drunk? Yes, I suppose I was, rather.'
'Been a row about it, I suppose? Or haven't they had time to get round to it yet?'
'Oh yes, they've had time.'
'Bad row, was it?'
'Well, yes, as these things go. I've got the push.'
'What?' Michie looked sympathetic, but neither surprised nor indignant. "That's
quick work. Well, I'm really sorry about that. Just over the lecture?'
'No. There'd been one or two other little departmental difficulties before, as you
probably know.'
Michie was silent for a moment, then said: 'Some of us'll miss you, you know.'
‘That’s nice. I shall miss some of you.'
'I'm going home tomorrow, so I'll say good-bye now. I passed all right, I suppose?
You can tell me now, can't you? I shan't hear till next week otherwise.'
'Oh yes, all your crowd are through. Drew failed, though. Is he a friend of yours?'
'No, thank God. Very satisfactory, that Well, good-bye.
I suppose I shall be doing Neddy's special subject after all next year.'
'Looks like it, doesn't it?' Dixon put his effects under his left arm and shook hands.
'All the best, then.'
‘Same to you.’
305
Dixon went off down College Road, forgetting to take a last look at the College
buildings until too late. He felt almost free of care, which, considering the
circumstances, he thought rather impressive of him. He'd go home that afternoon;
he'dhave gone anyway in a couple of days. He'd come back next week to pick up the
last of his stuff, see Margaret, and so on. See Margaret. ' Ooooeeeeyaaa,' he called
out to himself, thinking of it.' Waaaeeeoooghgh.' With his home so near hers, leaving
this place wouldn't seem like a move on, but a drift to one side. That was really the
worst of it.
He remembered now that this was the day he was to see Catchpole at lunch-time.
What could the fellow want? No use wondering about that; the important thing was
how to kill time until then. Back at his digs, he bathed his eye, which was beginning
to fade a little, though its new colour promised to be just as disfiguring and a good
deal less wholesome. A conversation with Miss Cutler about rations and laundry
followed; then he had a shave and a bath. While he was in the water, he heard the
phone ring, and in a few moments Miss Cutler tapped at the door. 'Are you there, Mr
Dixon?'
'Yes, what is it, Miss Cutler?'
'A gentleman on the telephone for you.'
'Who is it?'
'I'm afraid I didn't get the name.'
'Was it Catchpole?'
'Pardon? No, I don't think so. It was longer, somehow.'
'Oh, all right, Miss Cutler. Would you ask him for his number and say I'll ring him in
about ten minutes?'
‘Right you are, Mr Dixon.'
Dixon dried himself, wondering who this could be. Bertrand with more threats? He
hoped so. Johns, having intuited the fate of his insurance policies? Possibly. The
306
Principal, summoning him to an extraordinary meeting of the College Council? No,
no, not that.
ANALYSIS
To present his lecture, Dixon takes pills to boost his confidence. These later react
disastrously with some alcohol given him by the sympathetic Sir Hector. Dixon is
clearly drunk when he takes the stage. He departs from his notes completely and
collapses. Next day, he feels he has no choice but to resign from his position. On his
way to Welch’s house, he is phoned by Sir Hector.
Person Deixis
There are a lot of occurrences of the first person pronouns I, me, we and us and the
second
person
pronouns
you
and
your
as
well
as
the
occurrence
of he, his, himself, him, she, hers, it, they and them.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of there, here, that, this and these, which illustrate spatial and
discourse deixis. Among them here, this and these are proximal items and that, there
are distal items. Here and there function as place deictic markers in ‘Here it was,
smoking vigorously.’ and ‘Are you there, Mr. Dixon?’. The first one refers to the place
where the boiler is and the second one refers to the bath room. But, in ‘There was
nobody there.’ The first There is used as an existential there and the second one as a
place deictic item referring to John’s office. This is employed as a cataphoric
proximal deictic device in ‘He went on: ‘I say …don’t mind me asking this, do you?’.
The distal deictic item that and the proximal deictic item this are used as anaphoric
discourse deictic items on several occasions such as ‘That’s quick work. Well, I’m
really sorry about that.’ The proximal demonstrative these is employed, which
indicates Dixon’s reference-books and his lecture notes in his room.
307
Temporal Deixis
Now, this morning, tomorrow, next week, next year, last night, that afternoon , then
and before illustrate temporal deixis. Now and this morning have the value of
proximal temporal deixis and the others have the value of distal temporal deixis.
Social Deixis
Some examples of distal social deixis as in ‘Are you there, Mr. Dixon?’ and ‘yes, what
is it, Miss Cutler?’ are used in the passage.
Table 9
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
132
24
160
6
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
52
80
8
16
55
105
0
6
35.71
64.29
The whole passage is about Dixon who reviews his past memories in the college as
he is supposed to leave and his last night’s lecture, which leads him to get the sack.
Lots of distal deictic markers are used to refer to these events. The table justifies
Elam’s finding regarding the greatest number of distal deictic markers in fiction.
Passage X (pp.236-238)
'I can see that you and I have more in common than we thought at first. However;
after a particularly senseless row about some remark I'd made when introducing her
to my sister, I decided I didn't want any more of that kind of thing. I told her so.
There was the most shattering scene.' Catchpole combed his hair back with his
fingers and shifted in his seat. 'I'd got the afternoon off and we were out shopping, I
remember, and she started shouting at me in the street. It was really dreadful. I felt I
308
couldn't stand another minute of it, so finally, to keep her quiet, I agreed to go round
and see her that evening about ten o'clock. When the time came, I couldn't face
going. A couple of days later, when I found out about her ... attempted suicide, I
realized that that was the very evening I'd been supposed to go and see her. It gave
me a bit of a shock when I realized I could have prevented the whole thing if I'd
taken the trouble to put in an appearance.'
'Wait a minute,' Dixon said with a dry mouth. 'She asked me to go round that
evening as well. She told me afterwards that you'd come and told her ...'
Catchpole brushed this aside. 'Are you quite sure? Are you sure it was that evening?'
'Absolutely. I can remember the whole thing quite clearly. As a matter of fact, we'd
just been buying the sleeping pills when she asked me to come round, the ones she
must have used in the evening. That's how I remember. Why, what's up?'
'She bought some sleeping pills while she was with you?'
'Yes, that's right.'
'When was this?'
‘That she bought them? Oh, about midday I suppose. Why?’
Catchpole said slowly: 'But she bought a bottle of pills while she was with me in the
afternoon.'
They looked at each other in silence. 'I imagine she forged a prescription,' Dixon said
finally.
'We were both supposed to be there, then, and see what we'd driven her to,'
Catchpole said bitterly. 'I knew she was neurotic, but not as neurotic as that.'
‘It was lucky for her the chap in the room underneath came up to complain about
her wireless.'
'She wouldn't have taken a risk like that. No, this pretty well confirms what I've
always thought. Margaret had no intention of committing suicide, then or at any
other time. She must have taken some of the pills before we were due to arrive - not
enough to kill her of course - and waited for us to rush in and wring our hands and
309
see to her and reproach ourselves. I don't think there can be any doubt of that. She
was never in any danger of dying at all.'
'But there's no proof of that,' Dixon said. 'You're just assuming that.'
‘Don’t you think I'm right? Knowing what you must know about her?'
'I don't know what to think, honestly.'
'But can't you see ...? Isn't it logical enough for you? It's the only explanation that
fits. Look, try to remember; did she say anything about how many pills she took,
what the fatal dose was, anything like that?'
'No, I don't think so. I just remember her saying she was holding on to the empty
bottle all the time she ...'
‘The empty bottle. There were two bottles. That's it. I'm satisfied now. I was right.’
'Have another drink,' Dixon said. He felt he must get away from Catchpole for a
moment, but while he was standing at the bar he found he couldn't think, all he
could do was to try vainly to get his thoughts into order. He hadn't yet recovered
from the ordinary basic surprise at finding that a stranger knew very well someone
he knew very well; one intimacy, he felt, ought to rule out any others. And as for
Catchpole's theory... he couldn't believe it. Could he believe it? It didn't seem die
kind of theory to which belief or disbelief could be attached.
As soon as he'd rejoined him with the drinks, Catchpole said: 'You're not still
unconvinced, I hope?' He swayed about in his chair with a kind of unstable
exultation. 'The empty bottle. But there were two bottles, and she only used one.
How do I know? Do you imagine she'd have failed to tell you she'd used two if she
had used two? No, she forgot to tell a lie there. She thought it wouldn't matter. She
couldn't predict my getting hold of you in this fashion. I can't blame her for that:
even the best planner can't think of everything. She'd have checked up, of course,
that she'd be in no danger with one bottle. Perhaps two bottles wouldn't have killed
her, either, but she wasn't taking any risks.' He picked up his drink and put half of it
down. ' Well, I'm extremely grateful to you for doing this for me. I'm completely free
310
of her now. No more worrying about how she is, thank God. That's worth a great
deal.' He gazed at Dixon with his hair falling over his brow. 'And you're free of her
too, I hope.'
'You didn't ever mention the question of marriage to her, did you?'
'No, I wasn't fool enough for that She told you I did, I suppose?'
‘Yes. And you didn't go off to Wales with a girl around that time either?'
‘Unfortunately not. I went to Wales, yes, but that was for my firm. They don't
provide their representatives with girls to go away with, more's the pity.' He finished
his drink and stood up, his manner quietening. 'I hope I've removed your suspicions
of me. I've been very glad to meet you, and I'd like to thank you for what you've
done.' He leaned forward over Dixon and lowered his voice further. 'Don't try to help
her anymore; it's too dangerous for you. I know what I'm talking about. She doesn't
need any help either, you know, really. The best of luck to you. Good-bye.'
They shook hands and Catchpole strode out, his tie flapping. Dixon finished his drink
.and left a couple of minutes later. He strolled back to the digs through the lunchtime crowds. All the facts seemed to fit, but Margaret had fixed herself too firmly in
his life and his emotions to be pushed out of them by a mere recital of facts. Failing
some other purgative agent than facts, he could foresee himself coming to disbelieve
this lot altogether.
Miss Cutler provided lunch, for those who asked for it, at one o'clock. He'd planned
to take advantage of this and catch a train home just after two.
ANALYSIS
The passage deals with Dixon and Catchpole, Margaret’s other boyfriend, meeting.
They talk about their relations with Margaret and they find out that she played a
game with both of them. They both decide to leave her alone and make themselves
free of her.
311
Person Deixis
The third person pronouns he, his, him, himself, she, her, herself, it, they, them
and their, occur several times more than the first person pronouns
I, my, me, we, our and ourselves and the second person pronoun you in this passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of there, that, this, those, which illustrate spatial and
discourse deixis. That, there and those are examples of distal deixis. This is an
example of proximal deixis. The demonstratives that and this are used as anaphoric
discourse deictic items on several occasions. There is used as a place deictic marker
referring to the place that Catchpole and Margret had a raw, the drug store and
Margret’s flat. Those is used as a distal demonstrative, which refers to the teachers
at the college.
Temporal Deixis
Now has the value of proximal temporal deixis and then and that evening have the
value of distal temporal deixis, which marks out the time when Dixon was with
Margret out to buy sleeping pills and the time when Margret committed suicide.
Social Deixis
One example of distal social deixis Miss Cutler is in this passage.
Table 10
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
201
26
193
1
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
92
109
7
19
65
128
0
1
38.95
61.05
312
The whole passage is about Dixon and Catchpole meeting. They talk about the day
Margaret committed suicide and cheated on them. They both use a lot of distal
deictic devices to remember and solve the puzzle of that day, so the number of distal
deictic markers is more than proximal deictic markers.
5.3 Frequency of Proximal and Distal Deixis in Lucky Jim
The present section examines the frequency of proximal and distal deixis in ten
selected conversational passages in Lucky Jim. As it has been mentioned, the analysis
of the present study has been made in the light of Elam’s study (1980), who believes
that distal deictic items are more frequent than proximal deictic items in fictional
discourse. The total number of proximal and distal deictic items in the passage is
shown in the following table.
Table 11
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
1565
248
1720
24
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
719
846
124
124
704
1016
2
22
43.55
56.45
The total number of distal deictic items in the selected extracts is 2008. The
percentage of the occurrence of distal deictic items in ten passages is 56.45 per cent.
The analysis has revealed that the total number of distal deictic items is much more
than that of proximal deictic items, which justifies Elam’s finding too. The equality of
the number of proximal deictic devices and distal deictic devices in spatial and
discourse deixis is remarkable. In Lucky Jim, Jim is its deictic centre. He is the deictic
centre and there is focus on his thoughts, feelings, perceptions, worries and
313
decisions. He describes all these with reference to the past and present and hopes
for a future. Therefore the whole story can be seen as a deictic field, of which Jim is
the deictic centre. The third person pronouns appear almost in every sentence in the
story. Therefore, the number of distal deictic items is more than proximal deictic
items.
5.4 Analysis of Passages from the Novel Animal Farm
Passage I (pp. 2-3)
"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night.
But I will come to the dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think,
comrades, that I shall be with you for many months longer, and before I die, I feel it
my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have had a long life, I
have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I
understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is
about this that I wish to speak to you.
"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are
miserable, laborious, and short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will
keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to
work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness has
come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England
knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in
England is free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.
"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so
poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a
thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of
affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than now
inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows,
hundreds of sheep−and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now
almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?
314
Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us by human
beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a
single word−Man.
Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root
cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever. "Man is the only creature that
consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too
weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of
all the animals. He sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that
will prevent them from starving, and the rest he keeps for himself. Our labour tills
the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of us that owns more than his
bare skin. You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk
have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk which
should have been breeding up sturdy calves? Every drop of it has gone down the
throats of our enemies. And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year,
and how many of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to
market to bring in money for Jones and his men. And you, Clover, where are those
four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old
age? Each was sold at a year old−you will never see one of them again. In return for
your four confinements and all your labour in the fields, what have you ever had
except your bare rations and a stall?
"And even the miserable lives we lead are not allowed to reach their natural span.
For myself I do not grumble, for I am one of the lucky ones. I am twelve years old
and have had over four hundred children. Such is the natural life of a pig. But no
animal escapes the cruel knife in the end. You young porkers who are sitting in front
of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year. To that
horror we all must come−cows, pigs, hens, sheep, everyone. Even the horses and the
dogs have no better fate. You, Boxer, the very day that those great muscles of yours
lose their power, Jones will sell you to the knacker, who will cut your throat and boil
315
you down for the foxhounds. As for the dogs, when they grow old and toothless,
Jones ties a brick round their necks and drowns them in the nearest pond.
"Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from
the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour
would be our own. A1most overnight we could become rich and free. What then
must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the
human race! That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion! I do not know when
that Rebellion will come, it might be in a week or in a hundred years, but I know, as
surely as I see this straw beneath my feet, that sooner or later justice will be done.
Fix your eyes on that, comrades, throughout the short remainder of your lives! And
above all, pass on this message of mine to those who come after you, so that future
generations shall carry on the struggle until it is victorious.
"And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter. No argument must
lead you astray. Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a
common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is
all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us
animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle. All men are
enemies. All animals are comrades."
At this moment there was a tremendous uproar. While Major was speaking four
large rats had crept out of their holes and were sitting on their hindquarters,
listening to him. The dogs had suddenly caught sight of them, and it was only by a
swift dash for their holes that the rats saved their lives. Major raised his trotter for
silence.
"Comrades," he said, “here is a point that must be settled. The wild creatures, such
as rats and rabbits-are they our friends or our enemies? Let us put it to the vote. I
propose this question to the meeting: Are rats comrades?"
316
The vote was taken at once, and it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats
were comrades. There were only four dissentients, the three dogs and the cat, who
was afterwards discovered to have voted on both sides.
ANALYSIS
The passage deals with old Major’s speeches on his strange dream last night and
hiswish to communicate it to the other animals in the barn.
Person Deixis
In this passage the first person pronouns I and we and the second person
pronoun you occur several times. There are examples of the third person pronouns
such as it, he and they which refer to Men in the text and their complete dominance
over animals. These pronouns have distal value. The position of the speaker in the
centre of the text can be scrutinized by numerous occurrences of the first person
pronoun I.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
Deictic devices such as that, this, those, then, now and there occur several times
which are examples of distal deixis. This and here are examples of proximal deixis.
The demonstrative this is employed as a pointing device in ‘as surely as I see this
straw beneath my feet’, which refers to the straw itself, but on several occasions as
in ‘This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows…’ is a
proximal spatial deictic device referring to the farm, land and earth that they live on.
The speaker employs demonstrative that and this in ‘That is the plain truth’, ‘what
has happened to that milk?’, ‘To that horror we all must come’, ‘That is my message
to you’, and ‘It is about this that I wish to speak to you.’ to indicate the anaphoric
discourse deixis. This in ‘I propose this question to the meeting: Are rats comrades?’
and ‘Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?’ is an example of
cataphoric discourse deictic device referring to the upcoming portion of the
discourse. This is an example of the proximal exophoric discourse deictic item in ‘And
you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year’, which is used to indicate
317
psychological closeness. It is to convey the idea of recent past. There is used several
times in this passage as an existential device. Here is used as a pointing device and a
place deictic item to indicate the place where the animals gathered and listened to
Major. The distal demonstrative those is used as a pointing device to refer to the
animals on the farm, hens, foals and Boxer.
Now and then are used as discourse deictic markers in connection with previous
sentences and not temporal deixis. Consider the following example.
(103) ‘Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring
from the tyranny of human beings?’.
Temporal Deixis
In the passage there are occurrences of now, this moment, last night, last year
and then, which illustrate temporal deixis. Now and this moment have proximal
value and refer to the time at which the speaker is making the utterance. There is an
exception in the following sentence:
(104) ‘Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?’
Now in this sentence is considered as a sentence beginner and not as an example of
proximal deictic item. It does not have any meaning here.
Then, last night and last year have distal value. There are also examples of already in
the passage. Already can be both proximal and distal. It can be immediate or distant
past and because of this we cannot consider this as either a proximal or a distal
deictic item.
Social Deixis
There are occurrences of Comrades several times as the proximal social deictic
device in the passage, which shows closeness and equality among the animals on the
farm.
318
Table 1
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
142
28
155
13
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
90
52
13
15
129
26
13
0
72.49
27.51
Proximal deictic items are more frequent than distal deictic items, except in case of
spatial and discourse deictic items. As Major talks about misusing of the animals on
the farm, their slavery by human beings in the past and comparing their present
situation, lots of distal spatial and discourse deictic items are used in the passage.
Passage II (pp.7-8)
The pigs had an even harder struggle to counteract the lies put about by Moses, the
tame raven. Moses, who was Mr. Jones's especial pet, was a spy and a tale−bearer,
but he was also a clever talker. He claimed to know of the existence of a mysterious
country called Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died. It
was situated somewhere up in the sky, a little distance beyond the clouds, Moses
said. In Sugarcandy Mountain it was Sunday seven days a week, clover was in season
all the year round, and lump sugar and linseed cake grew on the hedges. The animals
hated Moses because he told tales and did no work, but some of them believed in
Sugarcandy Mountain, and the pigs had to argue very hard to persuade them that
there was no such place.
Their most faithful disciples were the two cart−horses, Boxer and Clover. These two
had great difficulty in thinking anything out for themselves, but having once
accepted the pigs as their teachers, they absorbed everything that they were told,
and passed it on to the other animals by simple arguments. They were unfailing in
319
their attendance at the secret meetings in the barn, and led the singing of Beasts of
England, with which the meetings always ended.
Now, as it turned out, the Rebellion was achieved much earlier and more easily than
anyone had expected. In past years Mr. Jones, although a hard master, had been a
capable farmer, but of late he had fallen on evil days. He had become much
disheartened after losing money in a lawsuit, and had taken to drinking more than
was good for him. For whole days at a time he would lounge in his Windsor chair in
the kitchen, reading the newspapers, drinking, and occasionally feeding Moses on
crusts of bread soaked in beer. His men were idle and dishonest, the fields were full
of weeds, the buildings wanted roofing, the hedges were neglected, and the animals
were underfed.
June came and the hay was almost ready for cutting. On Midsummer's Eve, which
was a Saturday, Mr. Jones went into Willingdon and got so drunk at the Red Lion that
he did not come back till midday on Sunday. The men had milked the cows in the
early morning and then had gone out rabbiting, without bothering to feed the
animals. When Mr. Jones got back he immediately went to sleep on the
drawing−room sofa with the News of the World over his face, so that when evening
came, the animals were still unfed. At last they could stand it no longer. One of the
cows broke in the door of the store−shed with her horn and all the animals began to
help themselves from the bins. It was just then that Mr. Jones woke up. The next
moment he and his four men were in the store−shed with whips in their hands,
lashing out in all directions. This was more than the hungry animals could bear. With
one accord, though nothing of the kind had been planned beforehand, they flung
themselves upon their tormentors. Jones and his men suddenly found themselves
being butted and kicked from all sides. The situation was quite out of their control.
They had never seen animals behave like this before, and this sudden uprising of
creatures whom they were used to thrashing and maltreating just as they chose,
frightened them almost out of their wits. After only a moment or two they gave up
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trying to defend themselves and took to their heels. A minute later all five of them
were in full flight down the cart−track that led to the main road, with the animals
pursuing them in triumph.
Mrs. Jones looked out of the bedroom window, saw what was happening, hurriedly
flung a few possessions into a carpet bag, and slipped out of the farm by another
way. Moses sprang off his perch and flapped after her, croaking loudly. Meanwhile
the animals had chased Jones and his men out on to the road and slammed the
five−barred gate behind them. And so, almost before they knew what was
happening, the Rebellion had been successfully carried through: Jones was expelled,
and the Manor Farm was theirs.
For the first few minutes the animals could hardly believe in their good fortune.
Their first act was to gallop in a body right round the boundaries of the farm, as
though to make quite sure that no human being was hiding anywhere upon it; then
they raced back to the farm buildings to wipe out the last traces of Jones's hated
reign. The harness−room at the end of the stables was broken open; the bits, the
nose−rings, the dog−chains, the cruel knives with which Mr. Jones had been used to
castrate the pigs and lambs, were all flung down the well. The reins, the halters, the
blinkers, the degrading nosebags, were thrown on to the rubbish fire which was
burning in the yard. So were the whips. All the animals capered with joy when they
saw the whips going up in flames. Snowball also threw on to the fire the ribbons with
which the horses' manes and tails had usually been decorated on market days.
"Ribbons," he said, "should be considered as clothes, which are the mark of a human
being. All animals should go naked."
When Boxer heard this he fetched the small straw hat which he wore in summer to
keep the flies out of his ears, and flung it on to the fire with the rest.
In a very little while the animals had destroyed everything that reminded them of
Mr. Jones. Napoleon then led them back to the store−shed and served out a double
ration of corn to everybody, with two biscuits for each dog. Then they sang Beasts of
321
England from end to end seven times running, and after that they settled down for
the night and slept as they had never slept before.
But they woke at dawn as usual, and suddenly remembering the glorious thing that
had happened, they all raced out into the pasture together. A little way down the
pasture there was a knoll that commanded a view of most of the farm. The animals
rushed to the top of it and gazed round them in the clear morning light. Yes, it was
theirs−everything that they could see was theirs! In the ecstasy of that thought they
gambolled round and round, they hurled themselves into the air in great leaps of
excitement. They rolled in the dew, they cropped
mouthfuls of the sweet summer grass, they kicked up clods of the black earth and
snuffed its rich scent. Then they made a tour of inspection of the whole farm and
surveyed with speechless admiration the ploughland, the hayfield, the orchard, the
pool, the spinney. It was as though they had never seen these things before, and
even now they could hardly believe that it was all their own.
ANALYSIS
The passage deals with the death of Old Major and animals’ rebellion after being
unfed one complete day. The animals started breaking the doors and making noise.
Mr.Jones and his men came out and started beating them with whips. It made
animals angrier and without any plan the real rebellion started which led to Mr.Jones
and his men’s escape.
Person Deixis
In the passage there are abundance of distal deictic items such as he, they, them
and their. There is no example of proximal deictic devices in the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
A few examples of this, these, and that are in the passage. This and these have
proximal value. That has distal value. That and this are used as anaphoric discourse
deictic items referring to a prior portion of the discourse as in ‘This was more than
322
the hungry animals could bear’. These is used as a proximal discourse deictic item,
which refers to the horses on the farm and the scenery around the farm.
Temporal deixis
Now, next moment, before and then occur in the passage which illustrate time
deixis. Now is used as a proximal deictic marker in ‘even now they could hardly
believe that it was all their own’. The distal deictic items then and before refer to the
preceding time before the time of speaking.
Social Deixis
Mr. in ‘Mr. Jones’ and Mrs. in ‘Mrs. Jones’ are examples of social distal deictic
markers, which give them higher social status as being the owners of the farm in the
passage.
Table 2
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
92
7
153
6
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
0
92
6
1
3
150
0
6
3.49
96.51
In the table the number of distal deictic items is more than the number of proximal
deictic items in all patterns except the second pattern. As the context is a description
of some past events, the number of distal deictic devices is more than proximal
deictic devices.
Passage III (pp.11-13)
All through that summer the work of the farm went like clockwork. The animals were
happy as they had never conceived it possible to be. Every mouthful of food was an
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acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by
themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master. With
the worthless parasitical human beings gone, there was more for everyone to eat.
There was more leisure too, inexperienced though the animals were. They met with
many difficulties−for instance, later in the year, when they harvested the corn, they
had to tread it out in the ancient style and blow away the chaff with their breath,
since the farm possessed no threshing machine−but the pigs with their cleverness
and Boxer with his tremendous muscles always pulled them through. Boxer was the
admiration of everybody. He had been a hard worker even in Jones's time, but now
he seemed more like three horses than one; there were days when the entire work
of the farm seemed to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning to night he was
pushing and pulling, always at the spot where the work was hardest. He had made
an arrangement with one of the cockerels to call him in the mornings half an hour
earlier than anyone else, and would put in some volunteer labour at whatever
seemed to be most needed, before the regular day's work began. His answer to
every problem, every setback, was "I will work harder!"−which he had adopted as his
personal motto.
But everyone worked according to his capacity. The hens and ducks, for instance,
saved five bushels of corn at the harvest by gathering up the stray grains. Nobody
stole, nobody grumbled over his rations, the quarrelling and biting and jealousy
which had been normal features of life in the old days had almost disappeared.
Nobody shirked−or almost nobody. Mollie, it was true, was not good at getting up in
the mornings, and had a way of leaving work early on the ground that there was a
stone in her hoof. And the behaviour of the cat was somewhat peculiar. It was soon
noticed that when there was work to be done the cat could never be found. She
would vanish for hours on end, and then reappear at meal−times, or in the evening
after work was over, as though nothing had happened. But she always made such
excellent excuses, and purred so affectionately, that it was impossible not to believe
324
in her good intentions. Old Benjamin, the donkey, seemed quite unchanged since the
Rebellion. He did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in
Jones's time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either. About the
Rebellion and its results he would express no opinion. When asked whether he was
not happier now that Jones was gone, he would say only "Donkeys live a long time.
None of you has ever seen a dead donkey," and the others had to be content with
this cryptic answer.
On Sundays there was no work. Breakfast was an hour later than usual, and after
breakfast there was a ceremony which was observed every week without fail. First
came the hoisting of the flag. Snowball had found in the harness−room an old green
tablecloth of Mrs. Jones's and had painted on it a hoof and a horn in white. This was
run up the flagstaff in the farmhouse garden every Sunday 8, morning. The flag was
green, Snowball explained, to represent the green fields of England, while the hoof
and horn signified the future Republic of the Animals which would arise when the
human race had been finally overthrown. After the hoisting of the flag all the animals
trooped into the big barn for a general assembly which was known as the Meeting.
Here the work of the coming week was planned out and resolutions were put
forward and debated.
It was always the pigs who put forward the resolutions. The other animals
understood how to vote, but could never think of any resolutions of their own.
Snowball and Napoleon were by far the most active in the debates. But it was
noticed that these two were never in agreement: whatever suggestion either of
them made, the other could be counted on to oppose it. Even when it was
resolved−a thing no one could object to in itself−to set aside the small paddock
behind the orchard as a home of rest for animals who were past work, there was a
stormy debate over the correct retiring age for each class of animal. The Meeting
always ended with the singing of Beasts of England, and the afternoon was given up
to recreation.
325
The pigs had set aside the harness−room as a headquarters for themselves. Here, in
the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts
from books which they had brought out of the farmhouse. Snowball also busied
himself with organising the other animals into what he called Animal Committees.
He was indefatigable at this. He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens,
the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades' Re−education Committee
(the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for
the sheep, and various others, besides instituting classes in reading and writing. On
the whole, these projects were a failure. The attempt to tame the wild creatures, for
instance, broke down almost immediately. They continued to behave very much as
before, and when treated with generosity, simply took advantage of it. The cat
joined the Re−education Committee and was very active in it for some days. She was
seen one day sitting on a roof and talking to some sparrows who were just out of her
reach. She was telling them that all animals were now comrades and that any
sparrow who chose could come and perch on her paw; but the sparrows kept their
distance.
ANALYSIS
The passage is about the victory of the animals, owning the farm, sharing work, their
happiness and difficulties which they faced on the farm.
Person Deixis
There
are
many
occurrences
of
distal
deictic
devices
such
as he, his, she, her, it, they, them, their and themselves. There is just one example of
proximal deictic item you in the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
Examples of proximal deictic items such as this, these, here are more than distal
deictic items that and there in the passage. There are several examples of there in
the passage which is as an existential adverb and not as a distal deictic item. That is
used as a distal exophoric discourse deictic marker once in the passage.
326
Here is a place deictic item which refers to the big barn where the animals gathered
to plan the work of coming week and the harness-room as a head quarter for the
pigs. This is employed as an anaphoric discourse deixis and point to the preceding
part of the sentence on several occasions as in ‘He was indefatigable at this’. These
as a proximal discourse deictic marker refers to the pigs Snowball and Napoleon and
their projects.
Temporal Deixis
Now is repeated several times in the passage which illustrates time deixis .It has
proximal value. Before and then also illustrate time deixis, which have distal value
referring to the preceding time before the time of speaking.
Social Deixis
There are two occurrences of social deixis in the passage. The social proximal deictic
device comrades and distal deictic device Mrs. Jones .
Table 3
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
67
9
127
2
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
2
65
8
1
7
120
1
1
8.78
91.22
The number of distal deictic devices only in the second column is less than the other
columns. The passage focuses on the present activities of the animals on the farm
after expelling Mr. Jones and his men, that is why spatial and discourse deictic
devices are used more.
327
Passage IV (pp. 16-17)
Early in October, when the corn was cut and stacked and some of it was already
threshed, a flight of pigeons came whirling through the air and alighted in the yard of
Animal Farm in the wildest excitement. Jones and all his men, with half a dozen
others from Foxwood and Pinchfield, had entered the five−barred gate and were
coming up the cart−track that led to the farm. They were all carrying sticks, except
Jones, who was marching ahead with a gun in his hands. Obviously they were going
to attempt the recapture of the farm.
This had long been expected, and all preparations had been made. Snowball, who
had studied an old book of Julius Caesar's campaigns which he had found in the
farmhouse, was in charge of the defensive operations. He gave his orders quickly,
and in a couple of minutes every animal was at his post.
As the human beings approached the farm buildings, Snowball launched his first
attack. All the pigeons, to the number of thirty−five, flew to and fro over the men's
heads and muted upon them from mid−air; and while the men were dealing with
this, the geese, who had been hiding behind the hedge, rushed out and pecked
viciously at the calves of their legs. However, this was only a light skirmishing
manoeuvre, intended to create a little disorder, and the men easily drove the geese
off with their sticks. Snowball now launched his second line of attack. Muriel,
Benjamin, and all the sheep, with Snowball at the head of them, rushed forward and
prodded and butted the men from every side, while Benjamin turned around and
lashed at them with his small hoofs. But once again the men, with their sticks and
their hobnailed boots, were too strong for them; and suddenly, at a squeal from
Snowball, which was the signal for retreat, all the animals turned and fled through
the gateway into the yard.
The men gave a shout of triumph. They saw, as they imagined, their enemies in
flight, and they rushed after them in disorder. This was just what Snowball had
intended. As soon as they were well inside the yard, the three horses, the three
328
cows, and the rest of the pigs, who had been lying in ambush in the cowshed,
suddenly emerged in their rear, cutting them off. Snowball now gave the signal for
the charge. He himself dashed straight for Jones. Jones saw him coming, raised his
gun and fired. The pellets scored bloody streaks along Snowball's back, and a sheep
dropped dead. Without halting for an instant, Snowball flung his fifteen stone
against Jones's legs. Jones was hurled into a pile of dung and his gun flew out of his
hands. But the most terrifying spectacle of all was Boxer, rearing up on his hind legs
and striking out with his great iron−shod hoofs like a stallion. His very first blow took
a stable−lad from Foxwood on the skull and stretched him lifeless in the mud. At the
sight, several men dropped their sticks and tried to run. Panic overtook them, and
the next moment all the animals together were chasing them round and round the
yard. They were gored, kicked, bitten, trampled on. There was not an animal on the
farm that did not take vengeance on them after his own fashion. Even the cat
suddenly leapt off a roof onto a cowman's shoulders and sank her claws in his neck,
at which he yelled horribly. At a moment when the opening was clear, the men were
glad enough to rush out of the yard and make a bolt for the main road. And so within
five minutes of their invasion they were in ignominious retreat by the same way as
they had come, with a flock of geese hissing after them and pecking at their calves all
the way.
All the men were gone except one. Back in the yard Boxer was pawing with his hoof
at the stable−lad who lay face down in the mud, trying to turn him over. The boy did
not stir.
"He is dead," said Boxer sorrowfully. "I had no intention of doing that. I forgot that I
was wearing iron shoes. Who will believe that I did not do this on purpose?"
"No sentimentality, comrade!" cried Snowball from whose wounds the blood was
still dripping. "War is war. The only good human being is a dead one."
"I have no wish to take life, not even human life," repeated Boxer, and his eyes were
full of tears.
329
"Where is Mollie?" exclaimed somebody.
Mollie in fact was missing. For a moment there was great alarm; it was feared that
the men might have harmed her in some way, or even carried her off with them. In
the end, however, she was found hiding in her stall with her head buried among the
hay in the manger. She had taken to flight as soon as the gun went off. And when the
others came back from looking for her, it was to find that the stable−lad, who in fact
was only stunned, had already recovered and made off.
The animals had now reassembled in the wildest excitement, each recounting his
own exploits in the battle at the top of his voice. An impromptu celebration of the
victory was held immediately. The flag was run up and Beasts of England was sung a
number of times, then the sheep who had been killed was given a solemn funeral, a
hawthorn bush being planted on her grave. At the graveside Snowball made a little
speech, emphasising the need for all animals to be ready to die for Animal Farm if
need be.
The animals decided unanimously to create a military decoration, "Animal Hero, First
Class," which was conferred there and then on Snowball and Boxer. It consisted of a
brass medal (they were really some old horse−brasses which had been found in the
harness−room), to be worn on Sundays and holidays. There was also "Animal Hero,
Second Class," which was conferred posthumously on the dead sheep.
There was much discussion as to what the battle should be called. In the end, it was
named the Battle of the
Cowshed, since that was where the ambush had been sprung. Mr. Jones's gun had
been found lying in the mud, and it was known that there was a supply of cartridges
in the farmhouse. It was decided to set the gun up at the foot of the Flagstaff, like a
piece of artillery, and to fire it twice a year−once on October the twelfth, the
anniversary of the Battle of the Cowshed, and once on Midsummer Day, the
anniversary of the Rebellion.
330
ANALYSIS
The passage is about the battle between Mr. Jones, his men and animals on the
farm. Mr. Jones and his men are in an attempt to recapture the farm and come back
to the farm. There was a heavy battle between two groups which ended with the
victory over the human beings.
Person Deixis
The occurrence of the third person pronouns he, himself, his, they, their and them is
more than the occurrence of the first person pronoun I in the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of that and there which have distal value. There is a place
deictic item in ‘Animal hero, First Class, which was conferred there and then on
Snowball and Boxer’, referring to the grave side. There is also used several times as
existential adverb as in ‘There was also ‘Animal Hero, Second Class’ which was
conferred posthumously on the dead sheep’. There are examples of anaphoric
discourse deictic devices this and that which points to the preceding part of the
sentence as in ‘I had no intention of doing that’ and ‘ This was just what Snowball
had intended’.
Temporal Deixis
Now, next moment and then occur in the passage which illustrates temporal
deixis. Nowhas proximal value. Then and next moment have distal value. There is an
example of already which can be immediate past or distant past, so we cannot
consider this as either a proximal or a distal deictic item.
Social Deixis
There are some examples of social deixis such as Mr. Jones, Comrade, Animal Hero
First Class and Animal Hero Second Class. Animal Hero First Class is given to Snowball
and Boxer and Animal Hero Second Class to the dead sheep due to their bravery in
the battle. These two titles can be considered as social distal deictic devices because
331
they make a distance and inequality among these animals and the other animals on
the farm. Comrade is an example of proximal social deixis which brings proximity and
equality among the animals.
Table 4
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
80
8
141
4
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
5
75
5
3
10
131
1
3
9.01
90.99
There are more occurrences of distal deictic devices than that of proximal deictic
devices in the passage.
Passage V (pp. 20-21)
The whole farm was deeply divided on the subject of the windmill. Snowball did not
deny that to build it would be a difficult business. Stone would have to be carried
and built up into walls, then the sails would have to be made and after that there
would be need for dynamos and cables. (How these were to be procured, Snowball
did not say.) But he maintained that it could all be done in a year. And thereafter, he
declared, so much labour would be saved that the animals would only need to work
three days a week. Napoleon, on the other hand, argued that the great need of the
moment was to increase food production, and that if they wasted time on the
windmill they would all starve to death. The animals formed themselves into two
factions under the slogan, "Vote for Snowball and the three−day week" and "Vote
for Napoleon and the full manger." Benjamin was the only animal who did not side
with either faction. He refused to believe either that food would become more
332
plentiful or that the windmill would save work. Windmill or no windmill, he said, life
would go on as it had always gone on−that is, badly.
Apart from the disputes over the windmill, there was the question of the defence of
the farm. It was fully realised that though the human beings had been defeated in
the Battle of the Cowshed they might make another and more determined attempt
to recapture the farm and reinstate Mr. Jones. They had all the more reason for
doing so because the news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and
made the animals on the neighbouring farms more restive than ever. As usual,
Snowball and Napoleon were in disagreement. According to Napoleon, what the
animals must do was to procure firearms and train themselves in the use of them.
According to Snowball, they must send out more and more pigeons and stir up
rebellion among the animals on the other farms. The one argued that if they could
not defend themselves they were bound to be conquered, the other argued that if
rebellions happened everywhere they would have no need to defend themselves.
The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up
their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement
with the one who was speaking at the moment.
At last the day came when Snowball's plans were completed. At the Meeting on the
following Sunday the question of whether or not to begin work on the windmill was
to be put to the vote. When the animals had assembled in the big barn, Snowball
stood up and, though occasionally interrupted by bleating from the sheep, set forth
his reasons for advocating the building of the windmill. Then Napoleon stood up to
reply. He said very quietly that the windmill was nonsense and that he advised
nobody to vote for it, and promptly sat down again; he had spoken for barely thirty
seconds, and seemed almost indifferent as to the effect he produced. At this
Snowball sprang to his feet, and shouting down the sheep, who had begun bleating
again, broke into a passionate appeal in favour of the windmill. Until now the
animals had been about equally divided in their sympathies, but in a moment
333
Snowball's eloquence had carried them away. In glowing sentences he painted a
picture of Animal Farm as it might be when sordid labour was lifted from the
animals' backs. His imagination had now run far beyond chaff−cutters and
turnip−slicers. Electricity, he said, could operate threshing machines, ploughs,
harrows, rollers, and reapers and binders, besides supplying every stall with its own
electric light, hot and cold water, and an electric heater. By the time he had finished
speaking, there was no doubt as to which way the vote would go. But just at this
moment Napoleon stood up and, casting a peculiar sidelong look at Snowball,
uttered a high−pitched whimper of a kind no one had ever heard him utter before.
At this there was a terrible baying sound outside, and nine enormous dogs wearing
brass−studded collars came bounding into the barn. They dashed straight for
Snowball, who only sprang from his place just in time to escape their snapping jaws.
In a moment he was out of the door and they were after him. Too amazed and
frightened to speak, all the animals crowded through the door to watch the chase.
Snowball was racing across the long pasture that led to the road. He was running as
only a pig can run, but the dogs were close on his heels. Suddenly he slipped and it
seemed certain that they had him. Then he was up again, running faster than ever,
then the dogs were gaining on him again. One of them all but closed his jaws on
Snowball's tail, but Snowball whisked it free just in time. Then he put on an extra
spurt and, with a few inches to spare, slipped through a hole in the hedge and was
seen no more.
Silent and terrified, the animals crept back into the barn. In a moment the dogs came
bounding back. At first no one had been able to imagine where these creatures came
from, but the problem was soon solved: they were the puppies whom Napoleon had
taken away from their mothers and reared privately. Though not yet full−grown,
they were huge dogs, and as fierce−looking as wolves. They kept close to Napoleon.
It was noticed that they wagged their tails to him in the same way as the other dogs
had been used to do to Mr. Jones.
334
Napoleon, with the dogs following him, now mounted on to the raised portion of the
floor where Major had previously stood to deliver his speech. He announced that
from now on the Sunday−morning Meetings would come to an end. They were
unnecessary, he said, and wasted time. In future all questions relating to the working
of the farm would be settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by
himself. These would meet in private and afterwards communicate their decisions to
the others. The animals would still assemble on Sunday mornings to salute the flag,
sing Beasts of England , and receive their orders for the week; but there would be no
more debates.
In spite of the shock that Snowball's expulsion had given them, the animals were
dismayed by this announcement. Several of them would have protested if they could
have found the right arguments. Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He set his ears
back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in
the end he could not think of anything to say. Some of the pigs themselves, however,
were more articulate. Four young porkers in the front row uttered shrill squeals of
disapproval, and all four of them sprang to their feet and began speaking at once.
But suddenly the dogs sitting round Napoleon let out deep, menacing growls, and
the pigs fell silent and sat down again. Then the sheep broke out into a tremendous
bleating of "Four legs good, two legs bad!" which went on for nearly a quarter of an
hour and put an end to any chance of discussion.
Afterwards Squealer was sent round the farm to explain the new arrangement to the
others.
ANALYSIS
Disagreement started between Snowball and Napoleon over building the wind mill
and the defence of the farm. When the day came that Snowball’s plans were
completed, the question of whether or not to start work on the windmill was to be
put to the vote. After Snowball’s speaking about the benefits of the windmill there
was no doubt that the vote would go to him. But at this moment Napoleon stood up
335
and uttered a high-pitched whisper. At this time there were nine dogs which came
into the barn and dashed straight for Snowball.
Person Deixis
Distal deictic items such as he, it, they, his, themselves, them and there are in
abundance in the passage. There is no use of the first and the second person
pronouns.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of that, there, this andthese which illustrate spatial and
discourse deixis. This and these are examples of proximal deixis. That and there are
examples of distal deixis. This and that have the effect of being an anaphoric
discourse deixis on several occasions, but that in ‘Snowball did not deny that to build
it would be a difficult business’ is an example of cataphoric discourse deictic item,
which refers to the windmill building.
There occur many times in the passage which employs as an existential adverb as in
‘Apart from the disputes over the windmill, there was the question of the defence of
the farm’. There are two occurrences of there as a distal spatial deictic item referring
to the windmill building and animal’s assembly on Sunday morning.
These is deployed as a proximal discourse deictic marker which refers to the material
needed for windmill building, the dogs and special committee of pigs.
Temporal Deixis
There are some examples of now, this moment, then and before as time deixis. Now
and this moment have proximal value. Before, then have distal value.
Social Deixis
There are two examples of social distal deictic itemsMr. Jones in the passage.
336
Table 5
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
84
8
164
2
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
0
84
6
2
10
154
0
2
6.20
93.80
Passage VI (pp. 25-27)
One Sunday morning, when the animals assembled to receive their orders, Napoleon
announced that he had decided upon a new policy. From now onwards Animal Farm
would engage in trade with the neighbouring farms: not, of course, for any
commercial purpose, but simply in order to obtain certain materials which were
urgently necessary. The needs of the windmill must override everything else, he said.
He was therefore making arrangements to sell a stack of hay and part of the current
year's wheat crop, and later on, if more money were needed, it would have to be
made up by the sale of eggs, for which there was always a market in Willingdon. The
hens, said Napoleon, should welcome this sacrifice as their own special contribution
towards the building of the windmill.
Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness. Never to have any
dealings with human beings, never to engage in trade, never to make use of
money−had not these been among the earliest resolutions passed at that first
triumphant Meeting after Jones was expelled? All the animals remembered passing
such resolutions: or at least they thought that they remembered it. The four young
pigs who had protested when Napoleon abolished the Meetings raised their voices
timidly, but they were promptly silenced by a tremendous growling from the dogs.
Then, as usual, the sheep broke into "Four legs good, two legs bad!" and the
337
momentary awkwardness was smoothed over. Finally Napoleon raised his trotter for
silence and announced that he had already made all the arrangements. There would
be no need for any of the animals to come in contact with human beings, which
would clearly be most undesirable. He intended to take the whole burden upon his
own shoulders. A Mr. Whymper, a solicitor living in Willingdon, had agreed to act as
intermediary between Animal Farm and the outside world, and would visit the farm
every Monday morning to receive his instructions. Napoleon ended his speech with
his usual cry of "Long live Animal Farm!" and after the singing of Beasts of England
the animals were dismissed.
Afterwards Squealer made a round of the farm and set the animals' minds at rest. He
assured them that the resolution against engaging in trade and using money had
never been passed, or even suggested. It was pure imagination, probably traceable
in the beginning to lies circulated by Snowball. A few animals still feltfaintly doubtful,
but Squealer asked them shrewdly, "Are you certain that this is not something that
you have dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it
written down anywhere?" And since it was certainly true that nothing of the kind
existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they had been mistaken.
Every Monday Mr. Whymper visited the farm as had been arranged. He was a
sly−looking little man with side whiskers, a solicitor in a very small way of business,
but sharp enough to have realised earlier than anyone else that Animal Farm would
need a broker and that the commissions would be worth having. The animals
watched his coming and going with a kind of dread, and avoided him as much as
possible. Nevertheless, the sight of Napoleon, on all fours, delivering orders to
Whymper, who stood on two legs, roused their pride and partly reconciled them to
the new arrangement. Their relations with the human race were now not quite the
same as they had been before. The human beings did not hate Animal Farm any less
now that it was prospering; indeed, they hated it more than ever. Every human
being held it as an article of faith that the farm would go bankrupt sooner or later,
338
and, above all, that the windmill would be a failure. They would meet in the
public−houses and prove to one another by means of diagrams that the windmill
was bound to fall down, or that if it did stand up, then that it would never work. And
yet, against their will, they had developed a certain respect for the efficiency with
which the animals were managing their own affairs. One symptom of this was that
they had begun to call Animal Farm by its proper name and ceased to pretend that it
was called the Manor Farm. They had also dropped their championship of Jones,
who had given up hope of getting his farm back and gone to live in another part of
the county. Except through Whymper, there was as yet no contact between Animal
Farm and the outside world, but there were constant rumours that Napoleon was
about to enter into a definite business agreement either with Mr. Pilkington of
Foxwood or with Mr. Frederick of Pinchfield−but never, it was noticed, with both
simultaneously.
It was about this time that the pigs suddenly moved into the farmhouse and took up
their residence there. Again the animals seemed to remember that a resolution
against this had been passed in the early days, and again Squealer was able to
convince them that this was not the case. It was absolutely necessary, he said, that
the pigs, who were the brains of the farm, should have a quiet place to work in. It
was also more suited to the dignity of the Leader (for of late he had taken to
speaking of Napoleon under the title of "Leader") to live in a house than in a mere
sty. Nevertheless, some of the animals were disturbed when they heard that the pigs
not only took their meals in the kitchen and used the drawing−room as a recreation
room, but also slept in the beds. Boxer passed it off as usual with "Napoleon is
always right!", but Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against
beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments
which were inscribed there. Finding herself unable to read more than individual
letters, she fetched Muriel.
339
"Muriel," she said, "read me the Fourth Commandment. Does it not say something
about never sleeping in a bed?"
With some difficulty Muriel spelt it out.
"It says, 'No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets ,"' she announced
finally.Curiously
enough,
Clover
had
not
remembered
that
the
Fourth
Commandment mentioned sheets; but as it was there on the wall, it must have done
so. And Squealer, who happened to be passing at this moment, attended by two or
three dogs, was able to put the whole matter in its proper perspective.
"You have heard then, comrades," he said, "that we pigs now sleep in the beds of
the farmhouse? And why not? You did not suppose, surely, that there was ever a
ruling against beds? A bed merely means a place to sleep in. A pile of straw in a stall
is a bed, properly regarded. The rule was against sheets, which are a human
invention. We have removed the sheets from the farmhouse beds, and sleep
between blankets. And very comfortable beds they are too! But not more
comfortable than we need, I can tell you, comrades, with all the brainwork we have
to do nowadays. You would not rob us of our repose, would you, comrades? You
would not have us too tired to carry out our duties? Surely none of you wishes to see
Jones back?"
The animals reassured him on this point immediately, and no more was said about
the pigs sleeping in the farmhouse beds. And when, some days afterwards, it was
announced that from now on the pigs would get up an hour later in the mornings
than the other animals, no complaint was made about that either.
ANALYSIS
The passage is about a new policy on the farm. From now onwards Animal Farm
would have business with neighbouring farms, not for commercial purpose, but in
order to getting certain materials which were necessary. MR. Whymper a solicitor
living in Willingdon had agreed to act as an agent between Animal Farm and the
outside world.
340
Person Deixis
The occurrence of distal deictic items he, she, it, his, its, herself, them and there are
more than proximal deictic items I, you, we, us and our in the passage.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There, these, this, that and then illustrate spatial and discourse deixis in the
passage. This and these have proximal value. There, then and that have distal value.
There is used as a place deictic item referring to the farm house where the pigs took
up their residence and the barn itself, but in ‘Except through Whymper, there was as
yet no contact between Animal Farm and the outside world, but there were constant
rumours that Napoleon was about to enter into a definite business agreement either
with MR.Pilkington of Foxwood or with MR.Frederick of Pinchfield’. there is used
twice as an existential device .
The demonstratives that and this are employed as anaphoric discourse deictic items
on several occasions such as ‘One symptom of this was that they had begun to call
Animal Farm by its proper name and ceased to pretend that it was called the Manor
farm’. These is also used as a proximal discourse deictic item referring to the Seven
Commandments.
Temporal Deixis
In this passage, now, this moment and this time illustrate time deixis. They are
examples of proximal deixis. They refer to the time including the time of the
speaking. There are examples of before and then which have distal value and they
refer to the time before the time of speaking.
Social deixis
Mr. Whymper, Mr. Pilkington and Mr. Frederick are examples of distal social deictic
items and Comrades is an example of proximal social deictic item in the passage.
341
Table 6
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
94
12
165
8
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
20
74
6
6
31
134
4
4
21.86
78.14
The number of proximal deictic items and distal deictic items in the second and the
fourth column is the same, which cannot be ignored.
Passage VII (pp. 31-33)
The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball
were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing
them with all kinds of dangers. In the evening Squealer called them together, and
with an alarmed expression on his face told them that he had some serious news to
report.
"Comrades!" cried Squealer, making little nervous skips, "a most terrible thing has
been discovered. Snowball has sold himself to Frederick of Pinchfield Farm, who is
even now plotting to attack us and take our farm away from us! Snowball is to act as
his guide when the attack begins. But there is worse than that. We had thought that
Snowball's rebellion was caused simply by his vanity and ambition. But we were
wrong, comrades. Do you know what the real reason was? Snowball was in league
with Jones from the very start! He was Jones's secret agent all the time. It has all
been proved by documents which he left behind him and which we have only just
discovered. To my mind this explains a great deal, comrades. Did we not see for
ourselves how he attempted−fortunately without success−to get us defeated and
destroyed at the Battle of the Cowshed?"
342
The animals were stupefied. This was a wickedness far outdoing Snowball's
destruction of the windmill. But it was some minutes before they could fully take it
in. They all remembered, or thought they remembered, how they had seen Snowball
charging ahead of them at the Battle of the Cowshed, how he had rallied and
encouraged them at every turn, and how he had not paused for an instant even
when the pellets from Jones's gun had wounded his back. At first it was a little
difficult to see how this fitted in with his being on Jones's side. Even Boxer, who
seldom asked questions, was puzzled. He lay down, tucked his fore hoofs beneath
him, shut his eyes, and with a hard effort managed to formulate his thoughts.
"I do not believe that," he said. "Snowball fought bravely at the Battle of the
Cowshed. I saw him myself. Did we not give him 'Animal Hero, first Class,'
immediately afterwards?"
"That was our mistake, comrade. For we know now−it is all written down in the
secret documents that we have found−that in reality he was trying to lure us to our
doom."
"But he was wounded," said Boxer. "We all saw him running with blood."
"That was part of the arrangement!" cried Squealer. "Jones's shot only grazed him. I
could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it. The plot was for
Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to
the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded−I will even say, comrades, he would have
succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not
remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard,
Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not
remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all
seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to
Humanity!' and sank his teeth in Jones's leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?"
exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side.
343
"That was part of the arrangement!" cried Squealer. "Jones's shot only grazed him. I
could show you this in his own writing, if you were able to read it. The plot was for
Snowball, at the critical moment, to give the signal for flight and leave the field to
the enemy. And he very nearly succeeded−I will even say, comrades, he would have
succeeded if it had not been for our heroic Leader, Comrade Napoleon. Do you not
remember how, just at the moment when Jones and his men had got inside the yard,
Snowball suddenly turned and fled, and many animals followed him? And do you not
remember, too, that it was just at that moment, when panic was spreading and all
seemed lost, that Comrade Napoleon sprang forward with a cry of 'Death to
Humanity!' and sank his teeth in Jones's leg? Surely you remember that, comrades?"
exclaimed Squealer, frisking from side to side.
Now when Squealer described the scene so graphically, it seemed to the animals
that they did remember it. At any rate, they remembered that at the critical moment
of the battle Snowball had turned to flee. But Boxer was still a little uneasy.
"I do not believe that Snowball was a traitor at the beginning," he said finally. "What
he has done since is different. But I believe that at the Battle of the Cowshed he was
a good comrade."
"Our Leader, Comrade Napoleon," announced Squealer, speaking very slowly and
firmly, "has stated categorically−categorically, comrade−that Snowball was Jones's
agent from the very beginning−yes, and from long before the Rebellion was ever
thought of."
"Ah, that is different!" said Boxer. "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right."
"That is the true spirit, comrade!" cried Squealer, but it was noticed he cast a very
ugly look at Boxer with his little twinkling eyes. He turned to go, then paused and
added impressively: "I warn every animal on this farm to keep his eyes very wide
open. For we have reason to think that some of Snowball's secret agents are lurking
among us at this moment! "
344
Four days later, in the late afternoon, Napoleon ordered all the animals to assemble
in the yard. When they were all gathered together, Napoleon emerged from the
farmhouse, wearing both his medals (for he had recently awarded himself "Animal
Hero, First Class," and "Animal Hero, Second Class"), with his nine huge dogs frisking
round him and uttering growls that sent shivers down all the animals' spines. They all
cowered silently in their places, seeming to know in advance that some terrible thing
was about to happen.
Napoleon stood sternly surveying his audience; then he uttered a high−pitched
whimper. Immediately the dogs bounded forward, seized four of the pigs by the ear
and dragged them, squealing with pain and terror, to Napoleon's feet. The pigs' ears
were bleeding, the dogs had tasted blood, and for a few moments they appeared to
go quite mad. To the amazement of everybody, three of them flung themselves
upon Boxer. Boxer saw them coming and put out his great hoof, caught a dog in
mid−air, and pinned him to the ground. The dog shrieked for mercy and the other
two fled with their tails between their legs. Boxer looked at Napoleon to know
whether he should crush the dog to death or let it go. Napoleon appeared to
changecountenance, and sharply ordered Boxer to let the dog go, whereat Boxer
lifted his hoof, and the dog slunk away, bruised and howling.
Presently the tumult died down. The four pigs waited, trembling, with guilt written
on every line of their countenances. Napoleon now called upon them to confess
their crimes. They were the same four pigs as had protested when Napoleon
abolished the Sunday Meetings. Without any further prompting they confessed that
they had been secretly in touch with Snowball ever since his expulsion, that they had
collaborated with him in destroying the windmill, and that they had entered into an
agreement with him to hand over Animal Farm to Mr. Frederick. They added that
Snowball had privately admitted to them that he had been Jones's secret agent for
years past. When they had finished their confession, the dogs promptly tore their
345
throats out, and in a terrible voice Napoleon demanded whether any other animal
had anything to confess.
ANALYSIS
There was rumoured that Snowball was hiding on one of the neighbouring farms and
he was secretly frequenting the farm by night. It was said that he came creeping in
darkness and performed all kinds of mischief on the farm. It made the animals
thoroughly scared. In between Squealer started spreading more rumours about
Snowball who is now plotting to attack Animal Farm and take it away from them.
Person Deixis
In this passage, there are occurrences of the first person pronouns
I, we, us, our, ourselves, my and myself, the second person pronoun you, and the
third person pronouns he, his, it, they, their and themselves.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
This and that are used a number of times, which illustrate spatial and discourse
deixis. This has proximal value. That has distal value. There are occurrences of this
and that, which illustrate the proximal and distal anaphoric discourse deictic markers
and point to the preceding part of the sentence on several occasions in the
passage. There is also used once in the following sentence.
(105) But there is worse than that.
It is an existential there.
Temporal Deixis
There are examples of before, then, that moment, now and this moment, which
illustrates time deixis. Before, then and that moment have distal value and they refer
to the preceding time before the time of speaking. Before refers to some past years
before rebellion. There are examples of now and this moment in the passage which
illustrate proximal time deixis.
346
Social Deixis
There are occurrences of proximal social deictic marker comrades, which show the
equality and unity among the animals. There are occurrences of distal social deictic
markers in ‘For he had recently awarded himself ‘Animal Hero, First Class’ and
‘Animal Hero, Second Class’. They indicate distance and inequality in position
between Napoleon and the other animals on the farm.
Table 7
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
135
12
166
17
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
33
102
5
7
36
130
13
4
26.36
73.64
Passage VIII (pp. 39-40)
The very next morning the attack came. The animals were at breakfast when the
look−outs came racing in with the news that Frederick and his followers had already
come through the five−barred gate. Boldly enough the animals sallied forth to meet
them, but this time they did not have the easy victory that they had had in the Battle
of the Cowshed. There were fifteen men, with half a dozen guns between them, and
they opened fire as soon as they got within fifty yards. The animals could not face
the terrible explosions and the stinging pellets, and in spite of the efforts of
Napoleon and Boxer to rally them, they were soon driven back. A number of them
were already wounded. They took refuge in the farm buildings and peeped
cautiously out from chinks and knot−holes. The whole of the big pasture, including
the windmill, was in the hands of the enemy. For the moment even Napoleon
347
seemed at a loss. He paced up and down without a word, his tail rigid and twitching.
Wistful glances were sent in the direction of Foxwood. If Pilkington and his men
would help them, the day might yet be won. But at this moment the four pigeons,
who had been sent out on the day before, returned, one of them bearing a scrap of
paper from Pilkington. On it was pencilled the words: "Serves you right."
Meanwhile Frederick and his men had halted about the windmill. The animals
watched them, and a murmur of dismay went round. Two of the men had produced
a crowbar and a sledge hammer. They were going to knock the windmill down.
"Impossible!" cried Napoleon. "We have built the walls far too thick for that. They
could not knock it down in a week. Courage, comrades!"
But Benjamin was watching the movements of the men intently. The two with the
hammer and the crowbar were drilling a hole near the base of the windmill. Slowly,
and with an air almost of amusement, Benjamin nodded his long muzzle.
"I thought so," he said. "Do you not see what they are doing? In another moment
they are going to pack blasting powder into that hole."
Terrified, the animals waited. It was impossible now to venture out of the shelter of
the buildings. After a few minutes the men were seen to be running in all directions.
Then there was a deafening roar. The pigeons swirled into the air, and all the
animals, except Napoleon, flung themselves flat on their bellies and hid their faces.
When they got up again, a huge cloud of black smoke was hanging where the
windmill had been. Slowly the breeze drifted it away. The windmill had ceased to
exist!
At this sight the animals' courage returned to them. The fear and despair they had
felt a moment earlier were drowned in their rage against this vile, contemptible act.
A mighty cry for vengeance went up, and without waiting for further orders they
charged forth in a body and made straight for the enemy. This time they did not
heed the cruel pellets that swept over them like hail. It was a savage, bitter battle.
The men fired again and again, and, when the animals got to close quarters, lashed
348
out with their sticks and their heavy boots. A cow, three sheep, and two geese were
killed, and nearly everyone was wounded. Even Napoleon, who was directing
operations from the rear, had the tip of his tail chipped by a pellet. But the men did
not go unscathed either. Three of them had their heads broken by blows from
Boxer's hoofs; another was gored in the belly by a cow's horn; another had his
trousers nearly torn off by Jessie and Bluebell. And when the nine dogs of
Napoleon's own bodyguard, whom he had instructed to make a detour under cover
of the hedge, suddenly appeared on the men's flank, baying ferociously, panic
overtook them. They saw that they were in danger of being surrounded. Frederick
shouted to his men to get out while the going was good, and the next moment the
cowardly enemy was running for dear life. The animals chased them right down to
the bottom of the field, and got in some last kicks at them as they forced their way
through the thorn hedge.
They had won, but they were weary and bleeding. Slowly they began to limp back
towards the farm. The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the grass moved
some of them to tears. And for a little while they halted in sorrowful silence at the
place where the windmill had once stood. Yes, it was gone; almost the last trace of
their labour was gone! Even the foundations were partially destroyed. And in
rebuilding it they could not this time, as before, make use of the fallen stones. This
time the stones had vanished too. The force of the explosion had flung them to
distances of hundreds of yards. It was as though the windmill had never been.
As they approached the farm Squealer, who had unaccountably been absent during
the fighting, came skipping towards them, whisking his tail and beaming with
satisfaction. And the animals heard, from the direction of the farm buildings, the
solemn booming of a gun.
"What is that gun firing for?" said Boxer.
"To celebrate our victory!" cried Squealer.
349
"What victory?" said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe and split his
hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged themselves in his hind leg.
"What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil−the sacred soil
of Animal Farm? "
"But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!"
"What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel
like it. You do notappreciate, comrade, the mighty thing that we have done. The
enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon. And now−thanks
to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon−we have won every inch of it back again!"
"Then we have won back what we had before," said Boxer.
"That is our victory," said Squealer.
They limped into the yard. The pellets under the skin of Boxer's leg smarted
painfully. He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the windmill from the
foundations, and already in imagination he braced himself for the task. But for the
first time it occurred to him that he was eleven years old and that perhaps his great
muscles were not quite what they had once been.
But when the animals saw the green flag flying, and heard the gun firing again−seven
times it was fired in all−and heard the speech that Napoleon made, congratulating
them on their conduct, it did seem to them after all that they had won a great
victory. The animals slain in the battle were given a solemn funeral. Boxer and Clover
pulled the wagon which served as a hearse, and Napoleon himself walked at the
head of the procession.
ANALYSIS
One morning, Frederic and his men attacked Animal Farm. They opened fire and the
animals could not face the terrible explosions and the stinging pellets. They took the
control of the farm and they exploded the windmill. At this sight the animals got
their courage back. The fear and despair were vanished in their rage against their
350
contemptible act. There was a bitter battle again, but the animals won the battle this
time.
Person Deixis
In
this
passage
there
are
many
occurrences
of
the
third
person
pronouns he, his, it, they, them and their. There are also examples of the first person
pronouns I, we and our and the second person pronoun you.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
In this passage, this and that are employed a number of times as spatial and
discourse deictic markers. This is an example of proximal deictic item and that is an
example of distal deictic. The speaker employs pointing gestural strategy by using
the demonstratives this and that in ‘this very ground’, ‘that hole’ and ‘that gun’.
That and this are used as anaphoric discourse deictic markers as in ‘We have built
the walls far too thick for that’, which refers to the preceding part of the sentence.
There are two examples of there as an existential adverb in the passage too.
Temporal Deixis
Now, this time, this moment, before, next moment and then occur in the passage as
time deixis. Before, next moment and thenhave distal value. Before refers to the
preceding time before the time of speaking. It keeps focus on Animals’ past
achievements. Then is used as a temporal deictic marker which indicates succession
of events. In the succession first comes digging a hole, packing blasting powder into
the hole and then the explosion. Now, this time and this moment have proximal
value. They refer to the present time including the time of speaking.
Social Deixis
Comrades is deployed on several occasions in the passage as the proximal social
deictic item to show the unity and union among the animals during the attack on the
farm.
351
Table 8
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
111
7
159
5
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
18
93
3
4
24
135
5
0
17.73
82.27
The total occurrences of distal deictic markers are more than proximal deictic
markers, since the passage deals with past achievements and inspiration of the
animals on the farm.
Passage IX (pp. 46-47)
Late one evening in the summer, a sudden rumour ran round the farm that
something had happened to Boxer.
He had gone out alone to drag a load of stone down to the windmill. And sure
enough, the rumour was true. A few minutes later two pigeons came racing in with
the news: "Boxer has fallen! He is lying on his side and can't get up!"
About half the animals on the farm rushed out to the knoll where the windmill
stood. There lay Boxer, between the shafts of the cart, his neck stretched out, unable
even to raise his head. His eyes were glazed, his sides matted with sweat. A thin
stream of blood had trickled out of his mouth. Clover dropped to her knees at his
side.
"Boxer!" she cried, "how are you?"
"It is my lung," said Boxer in a weak voice. "It does not matter. I think you will be
able to finish the windmill without me. There is a pretty good store of stone
accumulated. I had only another month to go in any case. To tell you the truth, I had
352
been looking forward to my retirement. And perhaps, as Benjamin is growing old
too, they will let him retire at the same time and be a companion to me."
"We must get help at once," said Clover. "Run, somebody, and tell Squealer what has
happened."
All the other animals immediately raced back to the farmhouse to give Squealer the
news. Only Clover remained, and Benjamin who lay down at Boxer's side, and,
without speaking, kept the flies off him with his long tail. After about a quarter of an
hour Squealer appeared, full of sympathy and concern. He said that Comrade
Napoleon had learned with the very deepest distress of this misfortune to one of the
most loyal workers on the farm, and was already making arrangements to send
Boxer to be treated in the hospital at Willingdon. The animals felt a little uneasy at
this. Except for Mollie and Snowball, no other animal had ever left the farm, and
they did not like to think of their sick comrade in the hands of human beings.
However, Squealer easily convinced them that the veterinary surgeon in Willingdon
could treat Boxer's case more satisfactorily than could be done on the farm. And
about half an hour later, when Boxer had somewhat recovered, he was with
difficulty got on to his feet, and managed to limp back to his stall, where Clover and
Benjamin had prepared a good bed of straw for him.
For the next two days Boxer remained in his stall. The pigs had sent out a large bottle
of pink medicine which they had found in the medicine chest in the bathroom, and
Clover administered it to Boxer twice a day after meals. In the evenings she lay in his
stall and talked to him, while Benjamin kept the flies off him. Boxer professed not to
be sorry for what had happened. If he made a good recovery, he might expect to live
another three years, and he looked forward to the peaceful days that he would
spend in the corner of the big pasture. It would be the first time that he had had
leisure to study and improve his mind. He intended, he said, to devote the rest of his
life to learning the remaining twenty−two letters of the alphabet.
353
However, Benjamin and Clover could only be with Boxer after working hours, and it
was in the middle of the day when the van came to take him away. The animals were
all at work weeding turnips under the supervision of a pig, when they were
astonished to see Benjamin come galloping from the direction of the farm buildings,
braying at the top of his voice. It was the first time that they had ever seen Benjamin
excited−indeed, it was the first time that anyone had ever seen him gallop. "Quick,
quick!" he shouted. "Come at once! They're taking Boxer away!" Without waiting for
orders from the pig, the animals broke off work and raced back to the farm
buildings. Sure enough, there in the yard was a large closed van, drawn by two
horses, with lettering on its side and a sly−looking man in a low−crowned bowler hat
sitting on the driver's seat. And Boxer's stall was empty.
The animals crowded round the van. "Good−bye, Boxer!" they chorused,
"good−bye!"
"Fools! Fools!" shouted Benjamin, prancing round them and stamping the earth with
his small hoofs. "Fools!Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?"
That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. Muriel began to spell out the
words. But Benjamin pushed her aside and in the midst of a deadly silence he read:
" 'Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides
and Bone−Meal.Kennels Supplied.' Do you not understand what that means? They
are taking Boxer to the knacker's! "
A cry of horror burst from all the animals. At this moment the man on the box
whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard at a smart trot. All the
animals followed, crying out at the tops of their voices. Clover forced her way to the
front. The van began to gather speed. Clover tried to stir her stout limbs to a gallop,
and achieved a canter. "Boxer!" she cried. "Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!" And just at this
moment, as though he had heard the uproar outside, Boxer's face, with the white
stripe down his nose, appeared at the small window at the back of the van.
354
"Boxer!" cried Clover in a terrible voice. "Boxer! Get out! Get out quickly! They're
taking you to your death!"
All the animals took up the cry of "Get out, Boxer, get out!" But the van was already
gathering speed and drawing away from them. It was uncertain whether Boxer had
understood what Clover had said. But a moment later his face disappeared from the
window and there was the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the
van. He was trying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from
Boxer's hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. But alas! his strength had
left him; and in a few moments the sound of drumming hoofs grew fainter and died
away. In desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the
van to stop. "Comrades, comrades!" they shouted. "Don't take your own brother to
his death! " But the stupid brutes, too ignorant to realise what was happening,
merely set back their ears and quickened their pace. Boxer's face did not reappear at
the window. Too late, someone thought of racing ahead and shutting the
five−barred gate; but in another moment the van was through it and rapidly
disappearing down the road. Boxer was never seen again.
Three days later it was announced that he had died in the hospital at Willingdon, in
spite of receiving every attention a horse could have. Squealer came to announce
the news to the others.
ANALYSIS
Boxer was not as healthy as before and he did not take care of his health in spite of
his friends’ warnings. Finally one evening in the summer when he had gone out to
drag a load of stone down to the windmill, he fell down on his side and couldn’t get
up anymore.
Person Deixis
There are some examples of the first person pronouns I, me and my, the second
person
pronouns
you
and
your
and
the
third
pronouns he, his, him, she, her, it, they, them and their in the passage.
person
355
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are occurrences of there, this andthat, which illustrate spatial and discourse
deixis. This is an example of proximal deixis. There and that are examples of distal
deixis. This is employed as an anaphoric discourse deictic marker in ‘He said that
Comrade Napoleon had learned with the very deepest distress of this misfortune to
one of the most loyal workers on the farm’, which refers to Boxer’s illness. There is
used as a place deictic marker once in ‘There lay Boxer, between the shafts of the
cart’,
which
refers
to
the
windmill.
But
there
is
employed
as
an
existential therewhich shows the existence of the stone next to the windmill in
‘There is a pretty good store of stone accumulated’ and the existence of farm
buildings in ‘there was a hush’. Demonstrative that is used as a pointing device,
indicating the van. It is used as an anaphoric discourse deictic item in ‘that gave the
animals pause’ and ‘Do you not understand what thatmean?’.
Temporal Deixis
There are two examples of already in the passage. It can be both proximal and distal,
because already can be immediate past or distant past and because of this we
cannot consider this as either a proximal or a distal deictic item. There is one
example of the proximal temporal deictic itemthis moment in the passage.
Social Deixis
There are some occurrences of proximal social deictic marker in the passage.
Consider the following example.
(106) ‘Comrades, comrades!’ they shouted.
356
Table 9
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
97
6
148
4
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
16
81
2
4
32
116
4
0
21.18
78.82
The numbers of distal deictic markers are more than the number of proximal deictic
markers in the columns except in the last column.
Passage X (pp.50-52)
One day in early summer Squealer ordered the sheep to follow him, and led them
out to a piece of waste ground at the other end of the farm, which had become
overgrown with birch saplings. The sheep spent the whole day there browsing at the
leaves under Squealer's supervision. In the evening he returned to the farmhouse
himself, but, as it was warm weather, told the sheep to stay where they were. It
ended by their remaining there for a whole week, during which time the other
animals saw nothing of them. Squealer was with them for the greater part of every
day. He was, he said, teaching them to sing a new song, for which privacy was
needed.
It was just after the sheep had returned, on a pleasant evening when the animals
had finished work and were making their way back to the farm buildings, that the
terrified neighing of a horse sounded from the yard. Startled, the animals stopped in
their tracks. It was Clover's voice. She neighed again, and all the animals broke into a
gallop and rushed into the yard. Then they saw what Clover had seen.
It was a pig walking on his hind legs.
357
Yes, it was Squealer. A little awkwardly, as though not quite used to supporting his
considerable bulk in that position, but with perfect balance, he was strolling across
the yard. And a moment later, out from the door of the farmhouse came a long file
of pigs, all walking on their hind legs. Some did it better than others, one or two
were even a trifle unsteady and looked as though they would have liked the support
of a stick, but every one of them made his way right round the yard successfully. And
finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black
cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty
glances from side to side, and with his dogs gambolling round him.
He carried a whip in his trotter.
There was a deadly silence. Amazed, terrified, huddling together, the animals
watched the long line of pigs march slowly round the yard. It was as though the
world had turned upside−down. Then there came a moment when the first shock
had worn off and when, in spite of everything−in spite of their terror of the dogs,
and of the habit, developed through long years, of never complaining, never
criticising, no matter what happened−they might have uttered some word of
protest. But just at that moment, as though at a signal, all the sheep burst out into a
tremendous bleating of−
"Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good, two legs better! Four legs good,
two legs better!"
It went on for five minutes without stopping. And by the time the sheep had quieted
down, the chance to utter any protest had passed, for the pigs had marched back
into the farmhouse.
Benjamin felt a nose nuzzling at his shoulder. He looked round. It was Clover. Her old
eyes looked dimmer than ever. Without saying anything, she tugged gently at his
mane and led him round to the end of the big barn, where the Seven
Commandments were written. For a minute or two they stood gazing at the tatted
wall with its white lettering.
358
"My sight is failing," she said finally. "Even when I was young I could not have read
what was written there. But it appears to me that that wall looks different. Are the
Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?"
For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was
written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It
ran:
ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
After that it did not seem strange when next day the pigs who were supervising the
work of the farm all carried whips in their trotters. It did not seem strange to learn
that the pigs had bought themselves a wireless set, were arranging to install a
telephone, and had taken out subscriptions to John Bull, TitBits, and the Daily Mirror.
It did not seem strange when Napoleon was seen strolling in the farmhouse garden
with a pipe in his mouth−no, not even when the pigs took Mr. Jones's clothes out of
the wardrobes and put them on, Napoleon himself appearing in a black coat,
ratcatcher breeches, and leather leggings, while his favourite sow appeared in the
watered silk dress which Mrs. Jones had been used to wear on Sundays.
A week later, in the afternoon, a number of dogcarts drove up to the farm. A
deputation of neighbouring farmers had been invited to make a tour of inspection.
They were shown all over the farm, and expressed great admiration for everything
they saw, especially the windmill. The animals were weeding the turnip field. They
worked diligently hardly raising their faces from the ground, and not knowing
whether to be more frightened of the pigs or of the human visitors.
That evening loud laughter and bursts of singing came from the farmhouse. And
suddenly, at the sound of the mingled voices, the animals were stricken with
curiosity. What could be happening in there, now that for the first time animals and
human beings were meeting on terms of equality? With one accord they began to
creep as quietly as possible into the farmhouse garden.
359
At the gate they paused, half frightened to go on but Clover led the way in. They
tiptoed up to the house, and such animals as were tall enough peered in at the
dining−room window. There, round the long table, sat half a dozen farmers and half
a dozen of the more eminent pigs, Napoleon himself occupying the seat of honour at
the head of the table. The pigs appeared completely at ease in their chairs The
company had been enjoying a game of cards but had broken off for the moment,
evidently in order to drink a toast. A large jug was circulating, and the mugs were
being refilled with beer. No one noticed the wondering faces of the animals that
gazed in at the window.
Mr. Pilkington, of Foxwood, had stood up, his mug in his hand. In a moment, he said,
he would ask the present company to drink a toast. But before doing so, there were
a few words that he felt it incumbent upon him to say.
ANALYSIS
The passage deals with the whole control of the pigs on the farm- changing the
seven commandments, changing the pigs’ life style, human visitors on the farm and
enjoying one another’s company.
Person Deixis
In
this
passage
the
third
person
pronouns
she,
her,
he, his, him, himself, it, they, themselves, them and their, occur many times. There
are also examples of the first person pronouns I, my and me.
Spatial and Discourse Deixis
There are examples of there and that. Both of them have distal value. There is used
twice in the following sentence.
(107) There was nothing there now except a single commandment.
The first occurrence of there is an existential there whereas the last there is used as
a place deictic device referring to the wall. To refer to the Waste ground and
Farmhouse, There is also used as a place deictic marker.
360
Clover might use a gesture to indicate the wall which seven commandments were
written on it. She says the following sentence.
(108) But it appears to me that that wall looks different.
She employs pointing gestural strategy by using the demonstrative that in ‘that wall’.
It has the effect of being an anaphoric discourse deictic marker in ‘A little awkwardly,
as though not quite used to supporting his considerable bulk in that position, but
with perfect balance, he was strolling across the yard’. That refers to the prior
portion of the discourse in which pigs walking on their hind legs.
Temporal Deixis
There are occurrences of now, that moment, that evening, next day and then, which
illustrate temporal deixis. Now has proximal value and then, that moment, that
evening and next day have distal value.
Social Deixis
Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones and Mr. Pilkington are examples of distal social deictic items in
the passage.
Table 10
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
83
8
127
3
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
4
79
0
8
9
118
0
3
5.88
94.12
The number of distal deictic items is greater than that of proximal deictic items in all
four columns which shows the huge distance and inequality between the animals on
the farm and pigs their present superiors.
361
5.5 Frequency of Proximal and Distal Deixis in Animal Farm
The present section examines the frequency of proximal and distal deixis in ten
selected passages in Animal Farm. The total number of proximal and distal deictic
items in the passage is shown in the following table.
Table 11
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
958
105
1505
64
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
188
797
54
51
291
1214
41
23
21.59
78.41
The total number of the occurrences of proximal deictic items in the selected
passages is 547. The number of distal deictic items is 2085. The percentage of
occurrence of distal deictic items in ten passages is 78.41 per cent. The analysis
justifies Elam’s claim that the total number of distal deictic items is more than
proximal deictic items in fiction. The near- equality of the number of proximal deictic
devices and distal deictic devices in spatial and discourse deixis cannot be ignored. In
the other columns the number of distal deictic items is more than proximal deictic
items except the last column. Animal Farm is a third person narrative and the
narrator is a non-participant. The focus is on the animals that are the centre of
action in the story. As the narrator describes animals’ thoughts, feelings, emotions,
worries and decisions with reference to the past events and they remember them as
the story continues, events such as the revolution of animals, their victory, writing
the Seven Commandments, Snowball leadership at the beginning, the idea of making
a windmill, their hard job on the farm to build a windmill, it is more about the past
362
rather than the present, which increases the number of distal deictic items in the
novel. When the pigs take the control on the farm, everything which was set before
changes and makes animals think more about all the rules and events in the past.
Using the title Comrades brings unity and equality in position among animals
through the story. This accounts for a greater number of proximal social deictic items
than distal social deictic items.
5.6 Frequency of Proximal and Distal Deixis in Lucky Jim and Animal
Farm
The total number of proximal and distal deictic items in the passages is shown in the
following table.
Table 12
Total Person
Total Spatial and
Total Temporal
Total Social
Deictic Items
Discourse Deictic
Deictic Items
Deictic Items
Total Percentage
Items
2550
353
3225
88
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
Proximal
Distal
907
1643
178
175
995
2230
43
45
34.15
65.85
5.7 Observations on Different Categories of Deixis in the Two Novels
On the whole, the totals of the two tables show the number of distal deictic markers
is more than proximal deictic markers, which justifies Elam’s claim. The comparison
of table 11 for both the novels shows that person distal deictic markers and
temporal distal deictic markers are more than proximal deictic markers. Proximal
and distal spatial and discourse deictic markers are almost the same in both novels.
The number of social deictic markers in both novels is different. The only difference
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can be seen in spatial and discourse deixis that the number of proximal deictic
devices is slightly more than distal deictic devices.
Elam (1980:142) notes, ‘Dramatic discourse is invariably marked by performability,
and above all by a potential gesturality, which the language of narrative does not
normally possess since its context is described rather than pragmatically pointed to.’
Narrative language focuses on the third person pronouns, distant times and places
(there, that, those, he, the past tense, etc.), which is typical of narrative language.
The table shows how the author’s employment of different deictic elements helps
the reader to understand the different perspectives in the text, mainly which of the
main character in addition to that of the writer in the light of other contextual
aspects.
As it is shown in table 12 the number of temporal distal deictic markers is more than
proximal deictic markers in both novels. In Animal Farmanimals’ feelings, decisions
and thoughts are described with reference to past events as the story continues.
Revolution happened on the farm and animals were promised to have new and
better life in the future. But as they move on the promises come hollow and they
just compare their present situation more with the past. It increases the number of
distal time deixis more than proximal deixis. The same happens in Lucky Jim. Jim as
the main character in the novel brings his anxieties, worries and decisions in
connection with whatever happened in the past. His performance at History
department, his relationship with Margaret and his confrontation with Bertrand. At
every stage he has flashbacks of the past.
Concerning social deictic items, the number of social proximal deictic items is more
than distal deictic items in Animal Farm and it is the reverse in Lucky Jim. In Animal
Farm after revolution equality and unity was brought on the farm. All the animals are
called Comrades and not by their own names, which gives them the same status and
more closeness. It results in the greater number of proximal deictic items than distal
deictic items. But in Lucky Jim there are different relationships and social position
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among the characters. A lot of distal deictic items as Sir, Mr. andMrs. are used in
different situations in connection with the age, position and sex of the characters in
the novel to express respect and maintain social balance.