Deixis Prepared by: Fatma Nasser Abushaban. Submitted to: Prof. Waleed Amer.

Definition of Deixis In linguistics, deixis refers to words and phrases that cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information.

Every language has deictic words.

Deictic words They point to things in the physical-social context of the speaker and addressee and whose referents can only be determined by knowing the context in which they are used.

I was disappointed that you didn’t come this afternoon I was disappointed that you didn’t come this afternoon. I hope you’ll join us tomorrow. We need to understand how the referents I, you, us relate to the referents this afternoon and tomorrow in order to be able to identify the first three referents. The meaning of any lexeme depends to some extent on the context in which it occurs, but deictic elements can only be interpreted through their contexts.

Examples of deictic words Pronouns. I, you, and we which point to the participants in any speech act. He, she, it, and they which refer to others in the environment. Locative expressions. Here and there, which designate space close to the speaker or further away. This/these and that/those, which respectively indicate entities close to or removed from the speaker

Temporal expressions: now, then, yesterday, today, tomorrow, last week, next month, and so on. These are all relative to the time when they are used.

Words which can be deictic are not always so. Today and tomorrow. ‘We can’t go today, but tomorrow will be fine. (deictic). ‘Today’s costly apartment buildings may be tomorrow’s slums’ (not deictic). The relation between the two words is analogous. Here and there. ‘ James hasn’t be here yet. Is he there with you?’ (deictic). ‘The children were running here and there. (not deictic).

The pronoun you. When it is used with the meaning ‘one, any person or persons’ as in ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’. Not deictic. The pronoun they. It has a generalized, non-deictic reference to people in general, especially those in charge of some endeavor or other, as in ‘They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’.

Thank you.