Explore Deixis through 10+ example sentences from English, with an explanation of the meaning and related words like semantics. Ideal for language learners, writers and word enthusiasts.
Deixis in a sentence
Deixis meaning
The use of a word, such as a pronoun, to refer to something that must be identified from the wider context; a word used in such a way.
Synonyms of Deixis
Using Deixis
- The main meaning on this page is: The use of a word, such as a pronoun, to refer to something that must be identified from the wider context; a word used in such a way.
- Useful related words include: semantics.
- In the example corpus, deixis often appears in combinations such as: deixis and, discourse deixis, of deixis.
Context around Deixis
- Average sentence length in these examples: 23.4 words
- Position in the sentence: 10 start, 4 middle, 0 end
- Sentence types: 14 statements, 0 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Deixis
- In this selection, "deixis" usually appears near the start of the sentence. The average example has 23.4 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, discourse, social, terms, refers, concerns and gestural stand out and add context to how "deixis" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include as space deixis concerns itself and as text deixis refers to. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "deixis" sits close to words such as aaronson, abai and abass, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with deixis
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
These categories of deixis were first discussed by Fillmore and Lyons. (11 words)
Gestural deixis refers, broadly, to deictic expressions whose understanding requires some sort of audio-visual information. (16 words)
In the past, deixis was associated specifically with spatiotemporal reference whereas indexicality was used more broadly. (16 words)
Distinction must be made between discourse deixis and anaphora, which is when an expression makes reference to the same referent as a prior term, as in :Matthew is an incredible athlete; he came in first in the race. (38 words)
Switch reference is a type of discourse deixis, and a grammatical feature found in some languages, which indicates whether the argument of one clause is the same as the argument of the previous clause. (34 words)
Discourse Discourse deixis, also referred to as text deixis, refers to the use of expressions within an utterance to refer to parts of the discourse that contains the utterance — including the utterance itself. (33 words)
Example sentences (14)
Deixis and indexicality The terms deixis and indexicality are frequently used almost interchangeably, and both deal with essentially the same idea: contextually dependent references.
Discourse Discourse deixis, also referred to as text deixis, refers to the use of expressions within an utterance to refer to parts of the discourse that contains the utterance — including the utterance itself.
Place Place deixis, also known as space deixis, concerns itself with the spatial locations relevant to an utterance.
Usages of deixis It is helpful to distinguish between two usages of deixis, gestural and symbolic, as well as non-deictic usages of frequently deictic words.
Although this article draws examples primarily from English, deixis is believed to be a feature (to some degree) of all natural languages.
Distinction must be made between discourse deixis and anaphora, which is when an expression makes reference to the same referent as a prior term, as in :Matthew is an incredible athlete; he came in first in the race.
Gestural deixis refers, broadly, to deictic expressions whose understanding requires some sort of audio-visual information.
Honorifics main Honorifics are a much more complex form of social deixis than T–V distinctions, though they encode similar types of social information.
In the past, deixis was associated specifically with spatiotemporal reference whereas indexicality was used more broadly.
SAR pp. 25. More importantly, each is associated with a different field of study; deixis is associated with linguistics, whereas indexicality is associated with philosophy.
Social Social deixis concerns the social information that is encoded within various expressions, such as relative social status and familiarity.
Switch reference is a type of discourse deixis, and a grammatical feature found in some languages, which indicates whether the argument of one clause is the same as the argument of the previous clause.
These categories of deixis were first discussed by Fillmore and Lyons.
This type of social deixis is found in a variety of languages, but is especially common in South and East Asia.
Common combinations with deixis
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- deixis and 4×
- discourse deixis 3×
- of deixis 3×
- deixis is 3×
- social deixis 3×
- deixis also 2×
- deixis refers 2×
- deixis concerns 2×