An Analysis of Deictic Expressions in Joe Biden's Inaugural Address

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of deixis in Joe Biden’s inaugural address. Deixis is used to get the intended meanings and the main issue that become Biden attention in using the dominant type of deixis. This study uses two theories, there are the five types of deixis theory that proposed by Levinson (1983) and the context of situation theory proposed by Brown & Yule (1983). This research deals with qualitative method. The data are collected from Joe Biden’s inaugural address script. The result of this research shows that Joe Biden uses the five types of deixis, there are person deixis, time deixis, place deixis, discourse deixis, and social deixis with the total number 337 deictics. Based on the finding, Joe Biden uses plural first person of person deixis mostly than the other types. From the dominant type, the main issue and the intended meanings in Biden’s address are found. The main issue that becomes Biden attention is the new government. The intended meanings of Joe Biden in using the dominant type of deixis are to hide reference of the speaker (Biden), the way to unite people (Americans), to get support from the audience (Americans), to show a new hope for the American, to show Biden’s leadership