The Targeting System of Language

A proposal that a single linguistic/cognitive system, “targeting,” underlies two domains of reference, anaphora (speech-internal) and deixis (speech-external).

In this book, Leonard Talmy proposes that a single linguistic/cognitive system, targeting, underlies two domains of linguistic reference, those termed anaphora (for a referent that is an element of the current discourse) and deixis (for a referent outside the discourse and in the spatiotemporal surroundings). Talmy argues that language engages the same cognitive system to single out referents whether they are speech-internal or speech-external.

Talmy explains the targeting system in this way: as a speaker communicates with a hearer, her attention is on an object to which she wishes to refer; this is her target. To get the hearer’s attention on it as well, she uses a trigger — a word such as this, that, here, there, or now. The trigger initiates a three-stage process in the hearer: he seeks cues of ten distinct categories; uses these cues to determine the target; and then maps the concept of the target gleaned from the cues back onto the trigger to integrate it into the speaker’s sentence, achieving comprehension. The whole interaction, Talmy explains, rests on a coordination of the speaker’s and hearer’s cognitive processing. The process is the same whether the referent is anaphoric or deictic.

Talmy presents and analyzes the ten categories of cues, and examines sequences in targeting, including the steps by which interaction leads to joint attention. A glossary defines the new terms in the argument.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Overview

Part I Lexical Cue Categories
Chapter 2 Core Cues To A Target
Chapter 3 Other Trigger Features
Chapter 4 Co-Form Cues To A Target

Part II Bodily Cue Categories
Chapter 5 Gestural Cues To A Target
Chapter 6 Corporal Cues To A Target

Chapter III Collateral Cue Categories
Chapter 7 Targetive Cues To A Target
Chapter 8 Hearer-Focuscues To A Target

Chapter IV Background Cue Categories
Chapter 9 Environmental Cues To A Target
Chapter 10 Epistemic Cues To A Target

Chapter V Temporal Cue Categories
Chapter 11 Chronal Cues To A Target
Chapter 12 Perichronal Cues To A Target

Chapter VI Sequences In Targeting
Chapter 13 Interaction Sequences And Joint Attention
Chapter 14 Cue Conflict And Its Resolution