Symbolic Usage
Definition:
Symbolic usage is the use of a deictic expression in such a way that its interpretation depends only on general knowledge of the extralinguistic situation, rather than on physical (visual, and so forth) monitoring of it.
Examples:
- This city is really beautiful.
- We can’t afford a holiday this year.
See Also:
Source:
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.