The Category of Deixis in the Verbal Interaction of Belarusian and English Speakers

The article deals with Belarusian and English deictic markers and their role in verbal communication of native speakers in line with the pragmatic approach to language as a theory of speech influence for achieving communicators’ goals. Being a universal linguapragmatic category, deixis not only forms the propositional frame of an utterance with the indication to the place, time and communicators, but also marks their goals in communication as a strategic process aimed at achieving participants’ aims (macrointentions) through the strategies of confrontation, negative politeness, and cooperation. The strategy is implemented through one or a number of tactics, which possess a dynamic character and make the strategy flexible. Speech tactics are predetermined by local aims (microintentions), and represent one of the tasks carried out consistently within a certain strategic line.