Linguo-semiotic potential of deictic time localizers in an English-language scientific text

The article addresses peculiarities of functioning of deictic units of time in a scientific text based on G. Boerner's book “Ball Lightning”. Attention is paid to research devoted to the analysis of the mechanism of “deixis” as a way of actualizing an utterance, as a means of connecting an utterance with its subject, as well as with spatio-temporal and discursive coordinates. The paper describes the localizers of the deictic system in comparison with the referent points of the mixed system and aims to investigate specific characteristics of the phenomenon under study. The features of the functioning of deictics of synchronicity defined by the breadth of semantic content are analyzed. It is proved that the deictics of time form logical and communicative structure of the scientific text. The movement of time in the analyzed text is determined by the position of the author-scientist, as a subject of consciousness, focusing the addressee's view on certain events and phenomena. The author-narrator or another subject to whom the role of narrator is delegated sets the coordinates of the narrative. The choice of the referent point of narration is redetermined by the pragmatic attitude of the author of the scientific text. The reader, along with the author, may act as a narrator in the communicative situation considered.