Deixis

In linguistics, deixis (/ˈdaɪksɪs/, /ˈdeɪksɪs/)[1] is the use of words or phrases to refer to a particular time (e.g. then), place (e.g. here), or person (e.g. you) relative to the context of the utterance.

[2] Deixis exists in all known natural languages[3][4] and is closely related to anaphora, with a sometimes unclear distinction between the two.

[6] The term's origin is Ancient Greek: δεῖξις, romanized: deixis, lit.

To this, Chrysippus (c. 279 – c. 206 BCE) added the specialized meaning point of reference, which is the sense in which the term is used in contemporary linguistics.

[7] There are three main types of deictic words, as described by Charles J. Fillmore: personal, spatial, and temporal.

[citation needed] Although these are often the same time, they can differ in cases such as a voice recording or written text.

[23] So, for example, in the sentence; the deictic center is simply the person at the time and place of speaking.

Gestural deixis refers, broadly, to deictic expressions whose understanding requires some sort of audio-visual information.

However, the category can include other types of information than pointing, such as direction of gaze, tone of voice, and so on.

Symbolic usage, by contrast, requires generally only basic spatio-temporal knowledge of the utterance.

An expression can be both deictic and anaphoric at the same time, for example "I was born in London, and I have lived here/there all my life."

[3] The terms deixis and indexicality are frequently used almost interchangeably, and both deal with essentially the same idea of contextually-dependent references.