Deixis

PRAGMATICS AND
SEMANTICS
• DEIXIS
Presentation by,
• Yasoob Haider
• Shanze Toor
• Azhar khan
• Aafia Ahmed

Any linguistic form that we use to accomplish the task of
pointing out is called deixis. The deictic words such as:
• I
• we
• you
• he
• she
• this
• that
• It
• now
• Then
• Here
• there
• Tomorrow etc.
Are different linguistic forms and are called deictic
expressions.
• Etymology
From the Greek, "pointing, show"
DEIXIS

• A deictic expression (or deixis) is a word or phrase that points to the
time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking. Deixis concerns
on the interpretation of utterances such as:
• who is speaking
• the time or place of speaking
• the gestures of the speaker, or
• the current location in the discourse
The meanings of deictic expressions can be understood only in terms of
speakers intended meanings. For example:
• Speaker A: Have you brought the book?
• Speaker B: Yes
The word the is obviously a deictic expression whose exact meaning can
only be understood in terms of speaker A’s intended meaning.
DEICTIC EXPRESSION/OR DEIXIS
– Proximal terms (near speaker) : this, here, now
– Distal terms (away from speaker) : that, there, then

When we indicate something we use expressions. These
expressions are called indexical, e.g.
• now
• then
• I
• Come
• go etc.
These expressions require an addressee to be able to pick out a
person, place or time relevant in understanding how the words
refer. This is called deictic reference.
• It is now 12:15.
• This is Iqbal.
• Letizea was the mother of Napoleon.
In the above examples, the underlined words i.e. It, this, the,
are deictic expressions or indexical.
INDEXICAL

The point of positioning of a speaker is called deictic center.
If a speaker is sitting at a specific place and says: Come here.
The word here in this case is deictic expression which shows that the
location of the speaker is away from the addressee .
It has two types: Deictic use and non deictic use
The deictic use can be further divided into 2 types, that is,
1. Deictic use plus gesture.
2. Deictic use minus gesture.
The example of deictic use plus gesture:
When a teacher says: You will have to read the chapter.
In this sentence the word you is deictic expression, used for only one
particular student and it conveys the meaning that you have to read the
chapter, you have to read the chapter, you have to read the chapter.
The example of deictic use minus gesture:
I know you will enjoy reading the chapter.
In this example, the statement is general and is without gesture.
DEICTIC CENTER

The examples of non-deictic expression
• I went to this city one time
• I broke this finger.
• I love this city.
In these examples, there is a non deictic use of this which
does not reference anything specific.
Rather, it is used as an indefinite article.
If we use “the” in place of “this”, it will be deictic .
In deictic expressions, immediate context or immediate setting
must be present, but in non- deictic expressions, there is no
immediate context.

KINDS OF DEIXIS
• Person Deixis
Any expression used to point a person is called person deixis.
e.g. all pronouns such as I, you, he, she, me, him, them etc.
Person deixis concerns the persons involved in an utterance, such as:
• The persons directly involved e.g. the speaker and the addressee.
• The persons not directly involved e.g. those who hear the
utterance but are not being directly addressed.
• The persons mentioned in the utterance.
Certainly, the distinctions are generally indicated by pronouns.
The following examples are self explanatory.
i. I am going to bazaar.
ii. Would you like to have dinner.

• Place Deixis
Place deixis is also described as spatial deixis, where the relative
location of people and things is being indicated.
Place deixis or spatial deixis usually expressed in this, these, there,
here, that, and those.
The following examples are worth mentioning:
• I enjoy living in this city.
• Here is where we met last month.
• She was sitting over there.

• Time Deixis
Time deixis is also called as temporal deixis. In other words, time
deixis concerns itself with the various times involved in and referred
to in an utterance, such as, tonight, last week, yesterday, before,
after etc.
Actually, time deixis includes time adverbs like now, then, soon and
so forth, and also different tenses.
For explaining time deixis, a good example is the word tomorrow,
which denotes the consecutive next day after every day. The
tomorrow of a day last year was a different day from the tomorrow
of a day next week.

A renowned linguistic Fillmore explains that in case of time deixis, the
time adverbs can be used relative to the time when an utterance is made.
Fillmore calls this time as the “encoding time”, or ET.
On the contrary, he calls the time, when the utterance is heard as the
“decoding time”, or DT.
While these are frequently the same time, they can differ, as in case of
pre-recorded broadcast or correspondence e.g.
If one were to right:
• “It is raining now, but I hope when you read this it will be sunny”
The ET and DT would be different.
Moreover, when I say,
• “I am going to start a new chapter”
It is an excellent example of ET, but when a teacher conveys a written
message to his/her class, by writing on the white board:
• “I will back in an hour”
He is referring to the decoding time or DT.
• Encoding time and Decoding time

• Empathetic Deixis
The metaphorical use of deictic forms to indicate emotional or other
psychological “distance” or “proximity” between a speaker and a referent.
The Example:
- The use of this to indicate the speaker’s empathy
- The use of that to indicate the speaker’s emotional distance
- “He went and hit that bastard”. (empathetic)
- I hate that!

• Social Deixis
Levinson (1983, p.89) stated that social deixis concerns with the aspects of
sentences which reflect certain realities of participants or the social situation
in which the speech event occurs. They show how different social rankings
within society via language take place.
There are two basic kinds of social deixis, they are:
- Relational social deixis
- Absolute social deixis
Relational social deixis is a deictic reference to some social characteristic of
referent apart from any relative ranking of referents or deictic reference to a
social relationship between the speaker and addressee. In English, relational
social deixis may be a lexical items (e.g. my husband, teacher, cousin, etc)
Absolute social deixis is a deictic reference usually expressed in certain
forms of address which will include no comparison of the ranking of the
speaker and addressee. For examples: your highness, Mr. President, your
majesty, etc.

For example:
• I can call my colleague “tum” but not “tu” because tu is not
comfortable in particular environment. It can be used in case of best
friends.
• Social deixis changes from language to language .

• Discourse deixis
It is also called text deixis. It refers to the use of expressions within an
utterance. It is used in conversation and in discourse practices.
When deixis is used for rhetoric purposes, that is called discourse deixis
In Urdu language for Allah Almighty, sometimes we use Aap and
sometimes Tu to emphasize the power of Allah Almighty, we switch from
aap to tu. In Urdu language, the words ap and unhon are used in a plural
sense but when used for rhetoric purpose, they are used in terms of
authority and respect.
Example:
– “You are wrong. That’s exactly what she said”. (discourse deictic)
– “It sounded like this: whoosh”. (discourse deictic)

personal deixis spatial deixis
temporal deixis

Deixis

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