Reference，Deixis and Texture

Abstract：Textual meaning is believed to be explained through two crucial properties of language：reference and deixis.This passage mainly talks about the the difference between deixis and reference by grouping reference into exophoric reference and endophoric reference and also discusses their cohesive effectiveness in texture after regrouping.

Key word：Exophoric Reference；Endophoric Reference；Cohesion

Readers or listeners interpret the meaning of the texts through receiving message from the words in the texts，and through receivers ability to project the meaning that conveyed by the texts on the objects or ideas in the world.

Exophoric Reference

Provided that the receiver fails to know what the text means，he can have a try to find out by searching information from other sentences in the text or by looking up in a dictionary.This shows the language property of reference，while deixis is the linguistic property that connect the text itself with the context when readers or receivers encounter the text.

Here is a short message that reads as followed：

See me here on the same day next month if you decide to buy the house.

When looking at this sentence at semantics or from the text itself，there would still be a lot to explain how this message convey meaning because many of the words in this do not send a useful meaning for lack of necessary information.The words are me，here，the same day，and next month.Actually these words do have a specific meaning.For instance，me means the person who is talking or writing.However，the meaning can not be complete without contextual information.Instead of finding this message alone，it was sent to you when you are inquiring about a house in a real estate company.Then the meaning of me，here，and the same day will be clear and complete.Me refers to the person who answered your inquiry，here refers to the place where you were standing when you received the message（probably the real estate agency），and the same day means the same date as the date when you received the message.The above words are called deictics which show the process of deixis but have no textual cohesive function as an exophoric cohesive device when the message is presented alone.

Apart from words clarifying time，person and place，exophoric reference like gesture and symbols can send meaning as well.Here are sentences extracted from Pilgrimage to the West：

祖師聞言……將悟空頭上打了三下，倒背著手，走入里面，將中門關了，撇下大眾而去。

Master Puti pretended to be angry with Monkey King yet sent implicit but true message to the monkey by gesture and symbols.In this case，the words said by Master Puti does not convey the true meaning without his gestures.The gestures show no meaning without the context of situation neither.In a word，exophoric reference can be divided into two categories：deixis and posture.And words that convey message by information obtained from outside of the text do not function in cohesion.

Endophoric Reference

Looking back at the first message，the information could have been provided by the text as well.The message may read as：

My name is Gabby.I am talking to you in Lianjia Agency，Wenjiang Branch and it is Nov.11th，2017.See me here on the same day next month if you decide to buy the house.

Now the message can explain itself in that words like me，here，the same day，and next month can be understood by the earlier information.Deictic words like the same day has been given earlier in the text（it refers to November 11th in this case）and this is anaphoric reference.

Besides anaphoric reference，here is a message written in a different way which shows cataphoric reference：

See me here on the same day next month if you decide to buy the house.My name is Gabby.I am talking to you in Lianjia Agency，Wenjiang Branch and it is Nov.11th，2017.

In the fourth message the referencing process works in the opposite direction.The meaning of those deictic words can be referred clearly by information from the latter part of the message.Though anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference are different in referencing process，words in both situations can serve as efficient endophoric cohesive devices in texture.

To conclude，cohesive devices in English texts are constrained by intra-linguistic context and extra-linguistic context.Accordingly，reference in a board sense can be divided into two categories：exophoric reference and endophoric reference.Exophoric reference including deixis and posture is not active in cohesion while endophoric reference involving anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference is effectively functioning in cohesion in texture.

參考文獻

[1]何自然.新編語用學概論.北京大學出版社.2009

[2]張德祿.語言的功能與文體.高等教育出版社.2005.

作者簡介

邱超群（1995.3月-今），女，漢族，籍貫（江西省上饒市），碩士研究生，研究方向：商務英語研究。

（作者單位：西南財經大學經貿外語學院）