adjective
- relating to or denoting words or expressions whose meaning depends on the context in which they are used, especially words that point to the speaker, addressee, time, or place of utterance
Usage: linguistics; technical
Examples
- Words like ‘here,’ ‘there,’ ‘now,’ and ‘then’ are deictic expressions.
- Pronouns such as ‘I,’ ‘you,’ and ‘this’ have deictic properties.
- The deictic nature of ‘yesterday’ makes its meaning dependent on when it is spoken.
- Linguists study deictic elements to understand how context affects meaning.
- Deictic words require knowledge of the speaker’s situation to be understood.
- The phrase ‘come here’ contains the deictic word ‘here.’