Deixis analysis of the Son of Bigfoot movie script: Pragmatic functions and implications for English language teaching

Abstract

Pragmatic competence requires language users to interpret expressions whose meanings depend on the context in which an utterance occurs. Deictic expressions are particularly important because their interpretation changes according to the speaker, addressee, location, and time of the communicative event. This study investigates the types and pragmatic functions of deixis found in the animated movie script Son of Bigfoot (2017), directed by Ben Stassen. The study employed a descriptive qualitative design and analyzed dialogue utterances containing person, spatial, and temporal deictic expressions. The data were collected through repeated viewing of the film and close reading of the accompanying transcript, followed by coding and contextual interpretation using Yule’s pragmatic framework. Twenty-one representative data units were identified, consisting of 12 instances of person deixis, 4 instances of spatial deixis, and 5 instances of temporal deixis. Person deixis was the most frequent category, with first-, second-, and third-person forms functioning to establish participant roles, identity, interpersonal alignment, and conflict. Spatial deixis anchored characters and events to proximal and distal locations, while temporal deixis organized events in relation to the moment of speaking. The findings indicate that deixis in the script is not simply a grammatical phenomenon but a contextual resource for constructing character relationships, narrative orientation, emotional distance, and temporal progression. The study further suggests that movie scripts can provide authentic materials for teaching pragmatic interpretation in English language education because learners can examine how apparently simple words such as I, you, he, here, there, now, and expressions referring to past time acquire meaning through context.