A Pragmatic Study Person Deixis In Milton's Lycidas

Abstract

This study aims at shedding light on the role of person deixis in expressing
one of the main themes of Milton's "Lycidas", which is death. It is built on a
supposition that Milton deliberately uses certain person deixis in certain
situations to show his two states of mind concerning the presence and
absence of his friend. The use of person deixis "we" serves the two opposite
states, now it shows the referent as alive now as dead. "He" and "Thou" are
also used- when the poet addresses Lycidas to show the controversy of
presence and absence in so far as they are used equally. Furthermore, the
poet's use of "thou" when he refers to Lycidas and "ye" when he addresses
other referents, participates in showing the sanctity of Lycidas a matter
which totally depends on the poet's knowledge of Latin and his awareness of
the use of T/V distinction.