Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The function of a deictic word in specifying its referent in a given context.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Grammar) the function or operation of a deictic word; the function of pointing or specifying from the perspective of a participant in an act of speech or writing; aspects of a communication whose interpretation depends on knowledge of the context in which the communication occurs.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun linguistics A
reference within a sentence that relies on thecontext being known to interpret correctly.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the function of pointing or specifying from the perspective of a participant in an act of speech or writing; aspects of a communication whose interpretation depends on knowledge of the context in which the communication occurs
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The difference between Doggerel and Motherese is clearest when it comes to deixis, which is the technical name for sentences that point out specific bits of information, such as “This is a ball” or “That cup is red.”
How to Speak Dog Stanley Coren 2000
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Old IE *sa was a definite *article*, neutral in deixis, like English 'the'.
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Despite any focus-derailing suppositions, my reference has clearly shown that the Korean nominative case marker, stripped of any nuance of deixis or definiteness, is still etymologically traced back to a demonstrative.
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These cues are a result of the combination of two levels of language: The semantic principle of deixis and the use of certain types of grammatical Adjunct.
Recently Uploaded Slideshows geniusroi 2010
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The demonstrative words 'That' and 'those' express physical orientation in language by pointing to where the speaker is situated relative to other entities specified in the sentence. (deixis).
Recently Uploaded Slideshows geniusroi 2010
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These cues are a result of the combination of two levels of language: The semantic principle of deixis and the use of certain types of grammatical Adjunct.
Recently Uploaded Slideshows geniusroi 2010
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The demonstrative words 'That' and 'those' express physical orientation in language by pointing to where the speaker is situated relative to other entities specified in the sentence. (deixis).
Recently Uploaded Slideshows geniusroi 2010
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This question is closely related to that of the temporal deixis of
PhilGons.com 2009
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It was a brilliant course (two days of the science of language: what’s not to love?) but it’s harder to enjoy when you’ve only had four-and-a-half hours sleep and then you have to talk about ‘lexical vs deixis constructions’ or ‘M4M (hand and mouth are different) mouth gestures’.
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I get dizzy at these lofty heights) and am sending down everything that I can possibly get away with because, let’s face it, all the lexical vs deixis constructions in the world aren’t as exciting as a fit man calling into the office.
jmjarmstrong commented on the word deixis
JM here, now, knows this and tells you – deixis rules!
March 2, 2009