On the Subjectivity of Spatial Deixis in the Language of English News〔* 〕

Gong Weidong，F(xiàn)an Yao

(School of Foreign Languages Yantai University，YantaiShangdong 264005)

Ⅰ．Introduction

Objectivity，which is followed by news journalists and other related people in this field when writing or reading news as a guiding principle，has always been regarded as a crucial characteristic of news in our modern society．Accordingly，many people just simply think that news texts can never be related with anything subjective．However，with the increasingly rapid development of cognitive linguistics，more and more scholars have realized that subjectivity is also an important characteristic of human language．Accordingly，as an important means of transmitting information and expressing opinions，news texts are by no means an exception．

Ⅱ．Subjectivity and spatial deixis

1．The concept of subjectivity

The concept of subjectivity was originated from the domain of philosophical study，and it is regarded as a basic characteristic which could decide the identity of the subject．In the domain of linguistics，the French linguist Benveniste defines subjectivity as an ability with which a speaker can regard himself as the “subject”．〔1〕The foundation of linguistic subjectivity is that the“self”in language refers to the person who utters“self”，which is decided by the linguistic identity of human beings．John Lyons also gives out a definition of subjectivity which is widely accepted nowadays．According to Lyons，subjectivity refers to a feature of language with which the imprint of the speaker’s self can always be reflected through discourse．〔2〕Lyons believes that when the speaker transmits information by making some utterances，he also expresses his stances，attitudes and emotions，which leaves the imprint of“self”in the discourse．

2．Subjectivity and construal perspectives

In the field of cognitive linguistics，American scholar Langacker holds the view that language expressions are based on people’s perception and cognition of the outside world．In his Foundations of Cognitive Grammar，Langacker proposed five aspects of human’s construal of the objective world，and among which，people’s choice of construal perspectives is an important facet that could give some explanations for the subjectivity in language．〔3〕

3．Subjectivity of English spatial deixis

Many linguists，such as Levinson，Lyons，Langacker，etc．，believe that deictic words are egocentric．Taking spatial deixis as an example，one may find that the words，like“this”，“that”，“here”，“there”，“come”，“go”，etc．，have one thing in common，namely，the starting point or deictic centre of the words is the speaker，which also reflects that language is more or less expressing the speaker’s subjective elements．When one makes an analysis of the semantic components of“this”and“that”，one may get the following four sememes:(ego)，(pointing)，(target)and(distance)．The four sememes are closely connected with each other:(ego)is the basic point of(pointing);(pointing)is directional，and indicates the direction of(target);(distance)is the length of the path starting from(ego)and ending with(target)．The sememe(distance)can be subdivided into(close)and(non － close)for“this”and“that”，as“this”usually indicates(close)，while“that”indicates(non－close)．

From what has been analyzed above，one may find that(ego)is a crucial se-mantic component in deixis．The one who uses such words in his utterances will also regard himself as the starting point of indicating，which reflects that the understanding of deixis cannot get rid of the subjective factors of the speaker’s(ego)．Accordingly，in terms of their linguistic structures，deictic words or expressions involve the concepts of“self expressing”in their semantic components，and thus the comprehension of such words or expressions should not ignore the influence of subjectivity．

Besides，many scholars also believe that spatial deictic words also could reveal the psychological distance in one’s mental world．For example:

(a)I was looking at this little puppy in a cage with such a sad look on its face．It was like，‘Oh，I’m so unhappy here，will you set me free?’

(b)An unpleasant smell being sniffed by the speaker，he would probably say，‘I don’t like that’．〔4〕

According to Construal Theory，people“have the ability to construal the same situation in many different ways”，〔5〕and towards the various conceptualization of(distance)in human’s psychological world，different perspectives of construal could provide a reasonable explanation．In(a)，the physical vantage point of the speaker is outside the puppy’s cage actually．However，the vantage point changed its location into the puppy’s cage when mapped in the psychological world of the speaker．As the speaker chose the puppy’s position as his or her vantage point of observing，he or she became much closer to the cage and the puppy，and their distance became so close that the speaker even performed the role of the puppy．Consequently，the construal perspective let the speaker use“here”rather than“there”to indicate the cage．Also，the changing of vantage point can be used to lengthen the psychological distance between the speaker and the indicated objects．According to sentence(b)，one may find that the vantage point of the speaker changed from in the atmosphere to out of the atmosphere of the smell．As a result，in(b)，the speaker used“that”to alienate the distance between the speaker’s ego and the unpleasant smell．Additionally，by using“that”，the speaker also expressed his negative attitude(dislike)towards this smell，which is by no means the objective description of a scene．

Ⅲ．Subjectivity of spatial deixis in English news

Since English spatial deixis has close relationship with the subjectivity of language，such subjectivity also could be reflected from the language of English news．Here，for the convenience of discussion，we select two pairs of common deictic pronouns and proverbs，“this”，“that”，“here”and “there”as exemplification．According to the indicative function of spatial deixis，we divided the four spatial deixis in collected English news into two groups，namely，(close)－indicating(“this”and“here”)and(non－close)－indicating(“that”and“there”)．

1．Application of(close)－indicating deixis

(Close)－indicating refers to the deictic words are used to indicate things or objects which are close to the space where the utterances are being made and the time when the utterances are being made．Due to the specificity of journalese，timeliness and facticity are usually regarded as the crucial characteristics of news，and these two characters are always reflected as the concept of“happening in this very place at this very time”in language．Thus，the(close)－indicating spatial deictic words are more frequently than those(non－close)－indicating ones in news texts in order to let the journalists report“what is happening here and now ”．〔6〕

2．Application of(non－close)－indicating deixis

(Non－close)－indicating deictic words are used to indicate things or objects which are far away from the space where the utterances are being made and the time when the utterances are being made．In the selected news articles，(non－close)－indicating words are comparatively seldom used except that there’s clear evidence that the journalist is really far away from the place where the reported news events happened．However，(non － close)－indicating deixis also could be used to refer to things or events close to the journalist．

(4)Russia denies sending direct military help to the rebels，insisting that any Russian soldiers there are“volunteers”．(September 14th，2014，BBC News，“U-kraine PM says Russia wants to‘restore Soviet Union’”)

In this news，the Russian speaker denies sending military help to U-krainian rebels and uses“there”to refer to the Russian soldiers in U kraine．“There”in example(4)shows at least two aspects of meaning．On the one hand，the Russian speaker was not staying at the battlefield when he was making these utterances．On the other hand，he deliberately lengthened the distance between himself and the Russian soldiers in U kraine in order to show Russian government’s negation of sending military help to U krainian rebels．When the journalist of BBC reported this in his news，he maintained the construal perspective of the Russian speaker in the news event．Through using the perspective of the Russian speaker，the journalist not only reports the event factually，but also let readers find the“deliberate negation”of Russian government．

From what has been discussed above，one may find that by changing the construal perspectives，people could lengthen or shorten the psychological distance between the observed things and themselves in order to show alienated or close relationships and negative or positive attitudes towards something or someplace．〔7〕The employment of(close)or(non － close)－ indicating deixis is not totally decided by the physical distance in the speaker’s real world，but is determined by considering the psychological distance in one’s mental world which is formed according to the different construal perspectives．

Ⅳ．Deep factors that affect the subjectivity of news language

Through the detailed analysis above，one should know that the subjectivity of spatial deixis in the language of English news mainly comes from human’s construal patterns during the process of cognition，especially the various choices of perspectives according to Langacker’s Construal Theory．With the mechanism of conceptualization，people could use the words or expressions that are used to refer objects or things originally to refer or reflect the mental process of human beings．As for English news texts，even though they are always considered to be objective，they cannot get rid of subjective elements completely．Why does the language of“objective”news texts have such subjective elements?Do these subjective elements surely play the role of obstacles in people’s understanding of the truth of news events?

1．The philosophical factors

From the perspective of philosophy，subjectivity refers to a state of spiritual consciousness．With this state，human mind could summarize the information of the object or the objective world，and give out the rational imagination，prediction and design of an ideal object through making creative thoughts．〔8〕Accordingly，subjectivity is not only an attribute of human language，but also a basic attribute of human beings．Human beings use language to make abstract summaries of the objective world and their own activities of consciousness，and their cognition of the objective world is based on such process．〔9〕

2．The social factors

Besides，social factors are also crucial motivations of the subjectivity in news language．As a special，public and social style，news describes and reports the relatively important events that happen in our daily life．Therefore，the content and language of news cannot avoid the influence of various social elements or factors，such as the governments’policies，the media’s wills，etc．

Besides the function of providing information，news still has another important function through which the right orientation of values can be established among people in the society．Since ancient times，Chinese people have advocated the traditional idea of“文以載道”，which means that literary works should play the role of leading a good social atmosphere．As for news，the requirement is even more obvious．In Q ing Dynasty，many progressives proposed that government need to take good advantage of newspapers to ascertain laws and regulations，to distinguish good and evil，to practice morality，and to encourage loyalty and filial piety．〔10〕Even nowadays，our Communist Party suggested that newspapers should be the most powerful tool for advertising the Party’s policies．〔11〕Not only in China，western countries，which propose and advocate pure“objective”news，also regard newspapers as a crucial tool for maintaining the mainstream values in their society．

Ⅴ．Conclusion

From what has been discussed and analyzed previously，one could draw the conclusion that the subjectivity of English spatial deixis in news language refers to the phenomenon that a news writer’s stances，attitudes and emotions are reflected through the language of news by shortening or lengthening the psychological distance between observer and the observed objects．The subjectivity of news language can be explained in accordance with the cognitive mode of human beings from the perspective of Langacker’s Construal Theory．The deep motivations of it，however，are more macroscopical．On the one hand，subjectivity is an inevitable philosophical property of language;while on the other hand，it is also a fundamental requirement which could help mass media achieve their social function by expressing government’s will，guiding correct public opinions and constructing social mainstream values．Therefore，from this point of view，subjectivity can help journalists to catch the“objective”nature of news events．

〔1〕Benveniste，E．， Problem s in General Linguistics，Coral Gables，F(xiàn)L:University of Miami Press，1971．

〔2〕Lyons，J．， Deixis and Subjectivity:Loquor，ergo sum?In R．J．Jarvella and W．Klein(eds．)，Speech，Place，and Action:Studies in Deixis and Related Topics，Chichester and New York:John Wiley，1982．

〔3〕Langacker，R．W．， Foundations of Cognitive Grammar vol．II:Descriptive Application，Stanford，California:Stanford University Press，2004．

〔4〕Yule，G．， Pragmatics，Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2000．

〔5〕Langacker，R．W．，Subjectification， Cognitive Linguistics，1990．

〔6〕陳晨:《新聞敘事的三種策略》，News World，2009(12)．

〔7〕Lakoff，G．， Women，F(xiàn)ire and Dangerous Things:What categories reveal about the mind，Chicago:The University of Chicago Press，1987．

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〔10〕丁淦林:《中國(guó)新聞事業(yè)史》，北京:高等教育出版社，2004年。

〔11〕《中國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨新聞工作文件匯編·為改造黨報(bào)的通知》，北京:新華出版社，1980年。