Analysis of Social Deixis in A Night in Khanzadʼs Life

Abstract

Abstract Pragmatics is branch of linguistics that studies language in context, therefore, there should be a relation between language and context that surrounds the utterance. One of the manifestations of this relation is social deixis. Social deixis is the linguistic expressions that show the status of the speaker, the addressee, or a third person or entity referred to, as well as the social relationships holding between them. Social deixis deals with forms of address and the way are used by the communicators. This study aims to identify and analyse social deictic expressions in the play "A Night in Khanzad's Life" written by Hama Kareem Hawrami. This study helps the reader to understand the theme of the play more clearly through the use of social deictic expressions. It is concerned with both types of social deixis and how each type is related to the social identity, relative power and social relation between the characters.This study uses descriptive and qualitative method, because it identifies and analyzes both types of social deixis (relational and absolute) in the texts found in this play. The study is based on Levinson's theory on deixis (1983). The texts are taken from the play "A Night in Khanzad's Life".The steps to analyze the play are reading the play, finding the types of social deixis, analyzing and classifying the types. The dominant type that is used by the writer in this play is relational social deixis.