What is deixis?

Definition
	Deixis is reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the (usually) extralinguistic context of the utterance, such as
	who is speaking the time or place of speaking the gestures of the speaker, or the current location in the discourse.

Examples (English)
	Here are examples of deictic expressions:
	I You Now There That The following Tenses

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of deixis:
	What is discourse deixis? What is empathetic deixis? What is person deixis? What is place deixis? What is social deixis? What is time deixis?

Generic
	Deixis is a kind of
	What is exophora?

Sources
	Crystal 1980 103
	Levinson 1983 54–56
	Mish 1991 335
	Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 1025

Context for this page:

Concept module: deixis
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): D
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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