Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
deixis

deixis

9.9
Words like I, you, here and now that change meaning depending on who, when and where
  • noun
  • /ˈdaɪksɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : deixis
  • Relying on deixis, the discourse is anchored temporally and spatially in the Rio Grande Valley and southward.
  • double deixis
  • person deixis

Examples

  • Understanding deixis helps us grasp how language varies based on the speaker's location and time.

  • My chief concern here, of course, is person deixis.

    Academic text (1994)

  • In addition to spatial deixis ("The dog stood over there"), temporal deixis ("After that I got really bored"), and person deixis ("She's smarter than I am"), we can also talk about social and discourse deixis.

    Academic text (1994)

  • In linguistics, deixis refers to words that rely on context, such as pronouns or adverbs.

  • The study of deixis reveals how meaning shifts in sentences like 'I will go there tomorrow.'

Synonyms

indexicality
vsdeixis
  • Specialized
9.9

A thing that gets its meaning from the situation, like the word 'here' or smoke

refers to the act of using such context-dependent words in communication

Surface Forms

deixis singular
deixes plural

Etymology

Deixis comes from the Greek root deik- meaning 'to show' or 'point'. Think of it like a language index: words such as 'I', 'here', and 'now' point to the speaker, the place, or the time, so their meaning changes with the situation.