2

"In all my dreams, I saw him drowning"

I think it is, thoughts?

tchrist
  • 134,759
pro24
  • 21
  • 4
    No. Him is simply a personal pronoun. Deixis has to do with place, time, and circumstances of an utterance. Words like here, this, now express proximal deixis. For details, see the Deixis Lectures. – John Lawler May 25 '15 at 16:14
  • @John: In the first of those texts, I like the bit about three ways *may* can be used. *Epistemic* (It may rain later), *pragmatic* (You may go now), and *magic* (May you rot in Hell). Is the name for that last category (still) widely recognized by you and your peers? – FumbleFingers May 25 '15 at 16:52
  • The first lecture is a real classic. There's probly a latin name for magic may, but I'm too lazy to make it up; I prefer Fillmore's term. It's much more descriptive and memorable. – John Lawler May 25 '15 at 16:55
  • @ John Lawler, If poetry is a performative art, him w’d be a pronoun, nothing deictic. But if poetry is a shared experience, then wouldn’t “him drowning” be as deictic as “is this a dagger?” or “Look on this… and on this.”? (only four more days for magic May) – Hugh May 26 '15 at 00:36

1 Answers1

1

Is the problem the dream state? you could cover that by describing the status of him as
Oneiric proximal deixis.

Hugh
  • 8,360
  • It is from the poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est". So yes, I could use that I suppose - it was the term I was looking for actually, thanks. – pro24 May 25 '15 at 16:56
  • It's all Greek to me. Really astonishing what heights grammar explanations can reach. The sentence structure is simple, but it would take an hour to explain those complicated and superfluous Greek/Latin terms. Academic jargon without value. – rogermue May 26 '15 at 02:37
  • @rogermue don't blame the grammarians; John Lawler's agrees with you. I am an epistemologist wanting to understand how "Dulce and Decorum Est" works. It does work im-mediately: we both agree. But to find out how it does, first it is worth translating the Latin title. It also seems worth analysing what is changed by putting the Chlorine gas attack into a dream (oneiric). – Hugh May 26 '15 at 21:01