Deixis in Spontaneous Speech of Jordanian Urban Arabic Native Speakers

Abstract

This study aims at describing types and usages of deixis in the speech of Jordanian Urban Arabic native speakers. The present study was conducted in different settings which researcher’s family members, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances took part in. Data of the study were collected through observing spontaneous speech of native speakers of Jordanian Urban Arabic. The data consist of transcriptions of deictic expressions, which were categorised into groups according to the types or usages of deictic words. The data were translated and transliterated by the researcher. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbols were used to transcribe the data. Findings of the study show that there are five types of deictic expressions in Jordanian Urban Arabic: Personal, spatial, temporal, discourse and social deixis. The current study has also described the various usages of deictic words in Jordanian Urban Arabic: gestural, symbolic, and non-deictic usage.