摘要：The main purpose of the study was to investigate the ability of EFL Saudi students of Department of English Language and Literature at Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University to use deictic expressions in their writing from a semantic perspective. To achieve this aim, the sample of the study was all level five male students majoring in English and studying the semantics course 363 at the English Department of Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in summer 2014. The sample consisted of 18 B.A students. All of them belonged to the same homogeneous group since they all belonged to the same level (level 5). To collect the data, the students were assigned a writing test for this study at the very last session of the course. The students were asked to write a topic of 150 words about a place they know, and a person who attends this place. They were inquired to use as much as they can of deictic expressions they have studied in their semantics course. Data were analyzed by using mean scores, standard deviation, t-test and covariance. The findings data analysis revealed that EFL Saudi students were capable to use the target deictic expressions more in syntactic functions than in semantic functions. The results also indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the subjects' representation of the deictic expressions in the syntactic functions and the semantic functions.
关键词：semantics; syntax; deictic expressions and writing
