Pragmatics and the Beetles!

Mar 21, 2008 at 5:36 AM
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I noticed that the Beetles song I am the Walrus begins with a really good example of personal deixis gone awry!

- I am he is you are he is you are me and we are all together.

If one were to try and follow this train of thought through to an actual conversation, no one would ever be able to tell who was refering to whom. I think that this goes to show us that drugs and pragmatics clearly do not mix.

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Excellent example and funny comment at the end. Although, I wonder sometimes if it wouldn't require some elicit drugs to understand some of the concepts we cover. They can be quite abstract at times. I wonder just what Lennon was trying to convey in this sentence. Seems it could have many depending on one's interpretation.

Yeah, I'm curious as to what this song means, but I do enjoy it. I was reviewing the section on person deixis in the book, and I noticed how the 1st person dominates 2nd and 3rd in this example. When 1st person deixis is present it dominates the 2nd/3rd person and that is why I, he, you, me are represented as "we are all together."

I agree that it's confusing when you try to figure out what is actually being said. I think the meaning could be deciphered, though; it seems like the phrase is saying that everyone is individual but we are all each other at the same time. If you've ever done acid, you know that there's a great feeling of connectedness between all things, reaching as far as the universe at large, so I'm pretty sure that's what he was getting at.

Pragmatics and the Beetles!

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