deiksja

Deiksja is a linguistic category describing expressions whose interpretation depends on contextual information surrounding the utterance. The core idea is that the meaning of deiksja terms cannot be fixed in isolation; they gain their reference from the speaker, the listener, a place in space, or a moment in time. Deiksja plays a central role in pragmatics and discourse analysis.

The term derives from the Greek deixis, meaning "pointing" or "showing." In linguistics it encompasses a range of expressions whose reference shifts with context, including pronouns, demonstratives, temporal and spatial adverbs, and certaines verb forms. The study of deiksja examines how language encodes situational information and how listeners recover intended reference.

Main types include: person deixis (I, you, he); spatial deixis (here, there, this, that); temporal deixis (now, then, yesterday); and discourse deixis (the following, the aforementioned). A common distinction is exophoric versus endophoric (or anaphoric) deixis: exophoric deixis refers to aspects outside the text or immediate setting, while endophoric deixis refers to elements within the discourse itself.

Examples illustrate the contextual dependence: "I am here now" uses here and now relative to the speaker; "this" or "that" points to a referent near or distant from the speaker; "you" identifies the addressee. In sign languages, deixis is expressed through pointing signs and body orientation; in written language, deictic expressions rely on the surrounding narrative frame.

Deiksja is studied across languages and modalities to understand cross-linguistic variation, translation challenges, and how discourse structure shapes reference.