Deiktikos

Deiktikos, commonly rendered as deictic, is a term used in linguistics and philosophy of language to describe expressions whose interpretation depends on the context of the utterance. The name derives from Greek deiktikos, meaning "able to show" or "demonstrative." Deixis, or deictic reference, governs words whose referents are anchored to the speech event.

The central idea is that the reference of a deictic expression is fixed by a deictic center, usually the speaker, the addressee, and the spatial and temporal location of the utterance. When the center shifts, the reference moves accordingly.

Major categories include: person deixis (pronouns and verb agreement that encode speaker, addressee, and others), place deixis (here vs there; proximal vs distal demonstratives), time deixis (now vs then; this year vs that year), discourse deixis (referring to parts of the ongoing discourse), and social deixis (expressions that encode social relations, formality, or respect).

Languages vary in how they encode deixis but typically use pronouns, demonstratives, and temporal or spatial adverbs. Some languages have elaborate demonstrative systems that distinguish multiple degrees of proximity; others rely more on context or verb morphology.

In linguistic theory, deixis is a core topic in pragmatics and semantics, distinguishing context-dependent reference from anaphora. The notion of a deictic center and deictic shift—such as in reported speech, narratives, or translations—helps explain how utterances acquire meaning beyond their literal wording.