Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The function of a deictic word in specifying its referent in a given context.
Wiktionary
- n. linguistics A reference within a sentence that relies on the context being known to interpret correctly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (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.
WordNet 3.0
- n. 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 Ancient Greek δείξις (deixis, "pointing,” “indicating,” “reference"), from δείκνυμι (deiknumi, "I show"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek, display, demonstrative reference, from deiknunai, to show; see deik- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“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.””
“Old IE *sa was a definite *article*, neutral in deixis, like English 'the'.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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).”
“This question is closely related to that of the temporal deixis of”
“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’.”
“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.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deixis’.
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phrontistery - d
from phrontistery.info
dacnomania, dacoitage, dacryops, dactylioglyph, dactyliology, dactyliomancy, dactylogram, dactylography, dactyloid, dactylology, dactylomancy, dactylomegaly and 624 more...
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Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 42 more...
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Sound Sex
taciturn, deflower, recursive, parapraxis, comitative, atelic, awkward, eccentric, libidinous, astereognosis, aloof, moonglade and 50 more...
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Medical terms or linguistic terms?
That's a terrible ablative case. Get me some morpheme, stet!
stet, stat, morpheme, morphine, ablative case, salmonella, morphology, nephrology, alethic modality, anaphoric clitic, bolus, hyperbole and 54 more...
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juv3nal's Words
ligature, hermeneutic, caduceus, prelapsarian, apophenia, pataphor, lipogram, epinephrine, ludic, samizdat, oulipo, oulipopo and 194 more...
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JesusIsLord's Words
debauchery, plethora, wiki, numinous, wormwood, scribe, gelded, mithridate, orthogonal, jaculiferous, jaculate, jactitation and 415 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
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my words
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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BetaRish's Words
brigand, teetotum, internship, thribble, neologism, readies, resfest, tohubohu, tanzen, regression, nutlet, bandolier and 111 more...
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Phrases and words I didn't know
give up the ghost, ninja'd, coal-hole, hotting up, chancer, clave, salaryman, turf accountant, cremains, autoclave, hummingbird mind, gank and 175 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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To Learn
paratonnerre, apophenia, aposiopesis, compline, rebarbatiive, comity, averruncate, apodictic, apophasis, farouche, accismus, abligurition and 157 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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Critical and Philosophical Terms
haecceity, aleatory, ontology, teratology, aporia, elective affinities, scholia, peroration, catachresis, architectonic, deixis, diegesis and 106 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deixis.

jmjarmstrong JM here, now, knows this and tells you – deixis rules! Mar 2, 2009