Towards the category "distancing" in the Macedonian deictic system

The paper deals with the semantics of the nominal distal indicators marking distancing of a subject of speech. Distancing is studied in the light of the concept of "personal space". The latter is regarded as an individual buffer space, which we form around us (it includes intimate and social areas). A speaker marks objects removed from him in space and time with the distal indicators. Neutral reference to a remote in space object is possible only in a situation of primary deixis. Moreover, a situation of retrospection in the past and future is possible, too. The evaluation function of deixis is associated with the retrospection: a speaker refers the marked objects to a class, and subjects them to expressive comparison. Intentional distancing leads to exclusion of the subject of speech from the personal space.