Pragmatic Functions of Person, Place, and Discourse Deixis in Conversational Opening and Closing in The Sopranos
Mario Malik Sabana, Dr. Ni Gusti Ayu Roselani, M.A.
2026 | Skripsi | SASTRA INGGRIS
This research examines the pragmatic functions and realization of person, place, and discourse deixis in conversational openings and closings in the crime TV drama The Sopranos (1999-2007), created by David Chase. It uses Stephen Levinson's (1983) theory of deixis and conversation analysis, supported by Locher and Jucker's pragmatics of fiction, to identify how the three types are realized and what differences and similarities they show. This research uses the qualitative descriptive method. The data are 145 utterances from 34 conversations in the first three seasons of the series, collected from online transcripts and checked against the scenes. The findings show 183 person deictic expressions (second person 86, first person 73, third person 24), 33 place deictic expressions, and 14 discourse deictic expressions. In openings, person deixis establishes the participants, place deixis identifies and locates people and objects, and discourse deixis ties the conversation to what has just happened or introduces the topic. In closings, person deixis releases the participants through departures, promises, well-wishing, and warnings, place deixis appears in directives related to ending the interaction, and discourse deixis closes or sums up the topic. Discourse deixis is realized only through that and this to refer to previous utterances, propositions, or events, ongoing topics or situations. All three types are context-dependent and follow the current speaker, and they support coherence and characterization, but they differ in what they refer to, in their forms, and in their distribution, and this and that realize either place or discourse deixis depending on context.
Kata Kunci : pragmatis, pragmatik fiksi, deiksis, deiksis orang, deiksis tempat, deiksis diskursus, The Sopranos