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 Deixis means Pointing via language. Any linguistic

form used to achieve this Pointing is called a Deictic expression or Indexicals. If you notice a strange object and ask Whats that?, you are using a deictic expression.

 Deixis signals a referent and it relates that referent to a common ground shared by the speaker and the addressee. Typical deictic include this, that, here, and now. All of these words have the ability to situate the speaker and hearer in relation to one another and to the world around them.

 Within linguistic view, deixis refers to the

phenomenon wherein understanding the meaning of certain words and phrases in an utterance requires contextual information. Words are deictic if their semantic meaning is fixed but their denotational meaning varies depending on time and/or place. Words or phrases that require contextual information to convey any meaning for example, English pronouns are deictic.

 Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose

interpretation is relative to the context of the utterance, such as

who is speaking
the time or place of speaking

the gestures of the speaker

the current location in the discourse The topic of the discourse

 Near speaker proximal terms ( this, here, now) Away from speaker distal terms (that, there, then)

 The example 1- from CBS (American) Evening News broadcast. 1. The Americans arrested three suspects, but they met many enemies

here, 2. When our soldiers shot back, the gunmen hiding in these houses
Here (line 1) and these (line 2) are two deictic words. These lines are a voice-over accompanying the video of the

attacked village. Listeners and viewers know that here does not mean in their own living room, although that is the point from which the television sound comes from, but that here refers to a location proximal to the speaker. In the same manner, these houses is understood to refer to the houses in the video broadcast.

The example 2 1. 1. But its clear the situation here could grow far worse 2. before the U.S. even has a chance to win it.

In this case, here is equivalent to here in Iraq or possibly here in Baghdad due to the context of the previous few sentences, in which the reporter interviews a U.S. general regarding the current situation on the ground. It is clear to all involved that here does not mean here the area that can be seen on the screen around the me [the reporter].

Kinds of Deixis
1. Person Deixis (me, you)
2. Spatial Deixis (here, there) 3. Temporal deixis (now, then)

Person Deixis
Person
Person deixis dealing with the grammatical

persons within an utterance, (1) those directly involved (e.g. the speaker, the addressee), (2) those not directly involved (e.g. over hearersthose who hear the utterance but who are not being directly addressed), and (3) those mentioned in the utterance.

 In English, the distinctions are generally indicated by

pronouns. The following examples show how. (The person deictic terms are in italics) I am going to the movies. Would you like to have dinner? They tried to hurt me, but he came to the rescue.

Unique instances
1. Would his highness like some coffee?
This ironic or humorous phrase His highness refers

to an occurrence when one person, whos very busy in the kitchen, addresses another, whos being very lazy to help the others. 2. Somebody didnt clean up after himself. This is a potential accusation that there is someone who violate the rules since each person has to clean up after him or herself.

Spatial Deixis
Spatial /Place deixis, also known as space deixis,

related to the spatial locations relevant to an utterance. Similarly to person deixis, the locations may be either those of the speaker and addressee or those of persons or objects being referred to. The most famous English examples are the adverbs here and there and the demonstratives this and that.

 Some examples:
I enjoy living in this city. Here is where we will place the statue.

She was sitting over there.

Unless otherwise specified, Spatial deictic terms are

generally understood to be relative to the location of the speaker, as in The shop is across the street.

 Here / There This / That

They indicate distance or proximity from the speaker,

Physical distance or proximity Mental and psychological distance or proximity (Ex. deictic projection in the direct speech)

Q.S 21.Anbiya 63

Unique examples
1. I am not here now.
This can be semantically illogical but pragmatically it

can be true since its an utterance recorded on phone answering machine. The word now refers to any time someone tries to call me, and not to when I actually record the words.

 2. I was looking at this little puppy in a cage with such

a sad look oh her face. It was like, Oh, Im so unhappy here, will you set me free? This is an utterance of someone who visit to a pet store and he is looking for his lost pet. The word here of the cage is not the actual physical location of the person uttering the words (the speaker), but is instead of the location of that person performing in the role of the puppy.

Temporal Deixis
Time
Time, or temporal, deixis concerns itself with the

various times involved in and referred to in an utterance. This includes time adverbs like "now", "then", "soon", and so forth, and also different tenses.

 Now proximal
Then distal (both past and future) Temporal events that move toward us (into view) this weekend Temporal events that move away from us (out of view)

 Choice of the verb tense

Present proximal form

Past distal form, not only in time but also

because unlikely or impossible: Ex: If I had a yacht. communicate not only distance from current time but also distance from current reality or facts.

The distal forms of temporal deixis are used to

Social Deixis
Social deixis concerns the social information that is encoded

within various expressions, such as relative social status and familiarity. Two major forms of it are the so-called T-V distinctions and honorifics. T-V distinction T-V distinctions, named for the Latin tu and vos (singular and plural versions of you) are the name given to the phenomenon when a language has two different second-person pronouns. The varying usage of these pronouns indicates something about formality, familiarity, and/or solidarity between the interactants. So, for example, the T form might be used when speaking to a friend or social equal, whereas the V form would be used speaking to a stranger or social superior. This phenomenon is common in European languages.[6]

 Exophoric dexis: person, spatial and temporal deixis

(External factor) Endophoric deixis: anaphoric and cataphoric deixis.

(internal factor)

Anaphora (Anaphoric reference)

In most of our talk and writing, we have to keep track

of who or what we are talking about for more than one sentence at a time, we use anaphoric reference.

A: Can I borrow your dictionary? B: Yean, its on the table. Here, word it refers back to the word dictionary. The previous word dictionary is called the antecedent , and the second word it is called the anaphor or anaphoric expression.

 In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a

cat. The man was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said something to her and they started laughing. The introductory mention a man, a woman, a cat. And the pronouns it, he, her, they. Peel and slice six potatoes. Put them in cold salted water.

Anaphor and antecedent

In English, initial reference,, or introductory mention, is

often indefinite (a man, a woman, a cat). In the example the definite noun phrases (the man, the cat, the woman) and the pronouns (it, he, her, they) are examples of subsequent reference to already introduced referents, generally known as anaphoric reference, or anaphora. In technical terms, the second or subsequent expression is the anaphor and the initial expression is the antecedent.

Cataphora
Cataphora: I turned the corner and almost stepped on

it. There was a large snake in the middle of the path. Whats it here is not clear. It can be anything in the mind of the hearer if the speaker doesnt tell the hearer about it.