Discourse-anadeictic uses of manner demonstratives: A view from spoken Israeli Hebrew

Abstract

Abstract Although past research has amply discussed the discourse-deictic function of demonstratives, it mainly focused on entity-referring and place-referring demonstratives, and was typically grounded in monologic, mostly written, data. To fill this gap, this study examines the discourse-deictic occurrences of the manner demonstrative kaχa ‘thus’ in Israeli Hebrew conversation. In these uses, kaχa points—prospectively or retrospectively—towards a contextually relevant discourse representation, requiring the recipient to operate upon that representation in order to create a new referent. The study argues for an essential difference between prospective and retrospective discourse-deictic occurrences of kaχa. As a prospective indexical, kaχa is maximally deictic – it directs the recipient’s attention towards an anticipated segment, enabling the speaker to claim the right to an extended turn, as well as facilitating the interlocutor’s processing of the upcoming segment. As a retrospective indexical, kaχa is anadeictic – it combines both the deictic and the anaphoric indexical procedures, targeting opinions or perspectives previously conveyed by the interlocutors, and subjecting them to further evaluation.