Cai’s Blog

Deixis or Deictics is a term used in linguistics that refers to a specific time; place, person or thing within a

text, withouth actually using the noun. We typically use deictics in speech because we rely on context in natural conversation.

An example:

Come here and look at this mess.

Go over there and look at that mess.

As see can see we have two very different situations. The first is where the mess is close to the speaker. The second is where the speaker is further away. It is worth noting however that in both situations the mess is still in sight.

Deictics are also used to describe the ways in which a text links the world of the narrative with that of the reader. For example, in poetry, deictics can be used to imply that the reader takes part in or watches a scene or events alongside the poet, as in this extract:

Say what you will, there is not in the world

A nobbler sight than from this upper down,

No rugged landscapes here…

In plays or prose, as well as within poetry, deictics or deictic expressions help to create and sustain the world of the play or narritive by refferring to places, people, times and events that have occured within it. Equally a further important function of deictics is to extend the world of the play or narrative to places, times, people and things we have not seen, rather than confining us to the world created by the text in front of us.

The four demonstrative deteriminers and pronouns are the prime deictics, this and these are POINTING to

what is here and now, while that and those point to there or then.

Other words commonly included in this category are here and there, now and then, today, yesterday and tomorrow, and the personal pronouns (I,we,you,us,they,etc.) Tense is also a deictic category.

In pragmatics and linguistics, deixis is a process whereby words or expressions rely absolutely on context. The origo is the context from which the reference is made - in other words, the viewpoint that must be understood in order to interpret the utterance.  For example if Dick is speaking with Harry and he says “I”, he refers to himself, but if he is listening to Harry and he says “I” the origo is then with him and the reference is to himself.) A word that is dependant on deictic clues is called a deictic or a deictic word.

Deictics are in contrast to proper nouns and definitive descriptions, that refer to real objects and states of affairs independant of their context, deixis denotes other linguistic signs in a given text, or extralinguistic elements in a given speech situation.

Deixis is all about context.