Deictic center meets take/bring distinction
In class we talked about the take versus bring distinction. How 'bring' goes toward the speaker or hearer and how 'take' means away from speaker or hearer. This made us raise an outraged outcry against the blasphemous sentence: 'Take it here'. This sentence offends the mind. If we are there where here is where we are, then there at that 'here' we would say bring instead of take.
But if we give a context for this sentence that changes the deictic center, it can make sense. If we were spies being given a mission impossible style impossible mission, the sentence could work i.e.
You will infiltrate the base. You will climb through the ducts. Make sure you have the suitcase nuke. Locate the bathroom. Take it here. Get the hell out.
The 'bring' versus 'take' distinction is found in German: 'hin' preposition meets 'out away from speaker' and 'her' means 'in towards the speaker', so you have to be careful when you ask some one to throw a knife 'hin' or 'her'.
Comments
This sentence threw me off big time. But I think I understand it. I like the way you explained bring as coming toward the hearer or speaker and take as going away from.
What about, "take me to the station." You are having the listener take you somewhere away from "here". Right?