Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Logic Directly proving by argument.
- adjective Linguistics Of or relating to a word, the determination of whose referent is dependent on the context in which it is said or written. In the sentence I want him to come here now, the words I, here, him, and now are deictic because the determination of their referents depends on who says that sentence, and where, when, and of whom it is said.
- noun A deictic word, such as I or there.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Demonstrative.
- In logic, direct: applied to reasoning which proves directly, and opposed to elenchic, which proves indirectly.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Logic) Direct; proving directly; -- applied to reasoning, and opposed to
elenchtic or refutative. - adjective (Grammar) showing or pointing to directly; pertaining to deixis; -- used to designate words that specify identity, location, or time from the perspective of one of the participants in a discourse, using the surrounding context as reference.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective grammar Of or pertaining to
deixis ; to aword whosemeaning isdependent oncontext - noun grammar Such a
word (such asI orhere )
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a word specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of a speaker or hearer in the context in which the communication occurs
- adjective relating to or characteristic of a word whose reference depends on the circumstances of its use
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Some lawyers are successful in the elenchical mode of argument -- to use a logical term -- that is, in demolishing the structure of their opponents, while they fail in the deictic, that is, in raising on its ruins an impregnable fabric of their own; but it was difficult to decide which process was the most thorough in the reasoning of Tazewell.
Discourse of the Life and Character of the Hon. Littleton Waller Tazewell Hugh Blair Grigsby 1843
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Some lawyers are successful in the elenchical mode of argument ” to use a logical term ” that is, in demolishing the structure of their opponents, while they fail in the deictic, that is, in raising on its ruins an impregnable fabric of their own; but it was difficult to decide which process was the most thorough in the reasoning of Tazewell.
Discourse of the Life and Character of the Hon Littleton Waller Tazewell Grigsby, Hugh Blair 1860
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Strange, I've posted exactly about this pre-Etruscan *i- deictic and its relationship to animacy, ergativity, and PIE *i- before online somewhere Yahoogroups like Cybalist perhaps?
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On the Minoan Language blog, Andras Zeke counters my entry against a prefix *i- in Minoan with a new idea that the morpheme in question was a separate deictic instead.
Archive 2010-02-01 2010
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"The word *i = "that" would make a perfect and natural deictic, that could later have been merged onto the demonstratives KA and TA."
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And I also know where this *i deictic might have come from.
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But I knew I wouldn't get it - I conlang, a lot, but I have no finished conlang to show, and judging by the HBO pitch, I don't think that showing off my flashy deictic systems would have impressed them much.
HBO creates new language for GAME OF THRONES Adam Whitehead 2010
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On the Minoan Language blog, Andras Zeke counters my entry against a prefix *i- in Minoan with a new idea that the morpheme in question was a separate deictic instead.
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He means Goethe, not the preludic and breath-born (e) launch of Wordsworth's "Oh there is a blessing in this gentle breeze," where the deictic "this" serves almost to demonstrate the poem's own aspirant impetus.
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It is very tempting to see a somewhat similar development in the case of Etruscan pronouns: the merger with an initial *i- deictic.
rolig commented on the word deictic
This word is right here. This word here is right.
December 3, 2007
mollusque commented on the word deictic
Is this word right here?
June 12, 2010