deiktic

Deiktic refers to words or phrases whose meaning is dependent on the context in which they are used. These are often called "indexicals" or "shifters" because their reference shifts depending on the speaker, listener, time, and place of utterance. Common examples include pronouns like "I," "you," and "he," spatial adverbs like "here" and "there," and temporal adverbs like "now" and "then."

For instance, the word "I" refers to the speaker in any given utterance. If Person A says "I am hungry," "I" refers to Person A. If Person B then says "I am hungry," "I" refers to Person B. Similarly, "here" refers to the location of the speaker, and "now" refers to the time of the utterance. The meaning of these deiktic terms is not fixed but is determined by the specific communicative situation.

Deixis is a fundamental aspect of human language, enabling speakers to refer to entities and situations outside of the linguistic expression itself. It plays a crucial role in establishing shared understanding and grounding conversation in the real world. Linguists study deixis to understand how language connects to context and how meaning is constructed in communication. The study of deixis is particularly important in pragmatics, the branch of linguistics concerned with language use in context.