Deixis as a reference to an alleged shared situation in persuasive discourse

Abstract

Frequent attention has been paid to deixis within the paradigm of pragmatics, especially concerning its implications in discourse analysis. The present paper attempts to explain the presence of indexicals in monologal utterances in mass persuasive discourse, which aims to create an illusion of intimacy based on a common physical ground, where the addressee is more easily drawn to the speaker's own purposes. Examples are proposed from newspaper editorials and, most specifically, from commercial consumer advertising.