deixis

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δεῖξις (deîxis, “pointing, indicating, reference”), from δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “I show”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪksɪs/, /ˈdeɪksɪs/

Noun

deixis (plural deixes)

1. (linguistics) A reference within a sentence that relies on the context being known to enable correct interpretation.

   Synonym: indexicality

   Antonym: homophora

   Hypernym: exophora

   The use of pronouns relies on a deixis to correctly interpret them.

   • 1996, George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University Press (→ISBN), page 9

     Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with utterances. It means 'pointing' via language. Any linguistic form used to accomplish this 'pointing' is called a deictic expression. When you notice a strange object and ask, 'What's that?', you are using a deictic expression ('that') to indicate something in the immediate context. Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexicals. They are among the first forms to be spoken by very young children and […]

See also

• anaphora

Further reading

• deixis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• https://glossary.sil.org/term/deixis

Anagrams

• dixies

Verb

deixis

1. second-person singular present subjunctive form of deixar