How Language Aims at a Target:The cognitive system underlying deixis and anaphora

As a speaker communicates with a hearer,the speaker’s attention can come to be on a particular entityher " target"—that she wants to communicate about to the hearer.This target can be located near or far in either the speech-external(deictic) or the speech-internal(anaphoric) environment.She thus needs the hearer to know what her intended target is and to have his attention on it jointly with her own.The problem,though,is how to bring this about.She cannot somehow reach into the hearer’s cognition and directly place his focus of attention on her selected target.Language solves this problem by initiating a certain two-stage procedure in the hearer’s cognition.For this function,it uses a specialized set of mostly closed-class lexical forms;" triggers".English triggers include;this/ these,that/those,here,there,yonder,now,then,thus,so,such,yay,thisaway,thataway,personal pronouns, relative pronouns,and tense markers.The speaker initiates the hearer’s procedure by placing a trigger at the relevant point in the current sentence of her discourse.In the first stage,the trigger directs the hearer to find certain elements of information to which he does have ready access.These are "cues" to the speaker’s intended target.Such cues belong to ten distinct categories,representing ten different sources of information.In the second stage,equipped with the cues he has found,the hearer uses them in combination to determine the speaker’s intended target.

As a speaker communicates with a hearer, the speaker＇ s attention can come to be on a particular entity -- her ＂target＂ -- that she wants to communicate about to the hearer. This target can be located near or far in either the speech-external （deietic） or the speech-internal （anaphoric） environment. She thus needs the hearer to know what her intended target is and to have his attention on it jointly with her own. The problem, though, is how to bring this about. She cannot somehow reach into the bearer＇s cognition and directly place his focus of attention on her selected target. Language solves this problem by initiating a certain two-stage procedure in the hearer＇ s cognition. For this function, it uses a specialized set of mostly closed-class lexieal forms： ＂ triggers＂. English triggers include： this/ these, that/those, here, there, yonder, now, then, thus, so, such, yay, thisaway, thataway, personal pronouns, relative pronouns, and tense markers. The speaker initiates the hearer＇ s procedure by placing a trigger at the relevant point in the current sentence of her discourse. In the first stage, the trigger directs the hearer to find certain elements of information to which he does have ready access. These are ＂ cues＂ to the speaker＇ s intended target. Such cues belong to ten distinct categories, representing ten different sources of information. In the second stage, equipped with the cues he has found, the hearer uses them in combination to determine the sneaker＇s intended tar^t.