Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article provides a deictic analysis of two magical formulas used in the spiritual-healing practice of the Traditional School of Reiki in Czechia. Drawing on autoethnographic material and using approaches from linguistic anthropology, semiotics, and speech act theory, it examines how linguistic means construct the subject of the utterance, its addressees, and the spiritual entity to which the formulas refer. The core of the analysis lies in their deictic structure, with attention paid to the tension between their grammatical and pragmatic levels. This phenomenon is captured through the concept of oscillating tension, which arises when the speaker, through different grammatical persons, refers to the same or ontologically consubstantial referent. The analysis shows that language here functions not only referentially but also performatively: as a medium of ritual transformation, it enables the speaker to act as a mediator between the profane and a spiritually constructed reality.
Source: Český lid
Author: Tomáš Samek
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4414524023
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