A deictic expressionor deixisis a word or phrase [such as this, that, these, those, now, then, here] that points to the time, place, or situation in which a speaker is speaking. Deixis is expressed in English by way of personal pronouns, demonstratives, adverbs, and tense.The term's etymology comes from the Greek, meaning "pointing" or "show," and it's pronounced "DIKE-tik."
It sounds more complicated than it really is, for sure.For example, if you would ask a visiting exchange student, "Have you been in this country long?" the wordsthis countryandyouare the deictic expressions, as they refer to the country where the conversation happens and the person being addressed in the conversation, respectively.
Types of Deictic Expressions
Deictic expressions can be one of several types, referring to who, where, and when. Author Barry Blake explained in his book "All About Language":
"Pronouns make up a system ofpersonal deixis. All languages have a pronoun for the speaker [thefirst person] and one for the addressee [thesecond person]. [Unlike English, some] languages lack a third personsingular pronoun, so the absence of a form for 'I' or 'you' is interpreted as referring to a third person....
"Words likethisandthatandhereandtherebelong to a system ofspatial deixis. Thehere/theredistinction is also found in pairs of verbs such ascome/goandbring/take....
"There is alsotemporal deixisfound in words likenow, then, yesterday,andtomorrow, and in phrases such aslast monthandnext year." [Oxford University Press, 2008]
Common Frame of Reference Needed
Without a common frame of reference between the speakers, the deixis on its own would be too vague to be understood, as illustrated in this example from Edward Finegan in "Language: Its Structure and Use."
"Consider the following sentence addressed to a waiter by a restaurant customer while pointing to items on a menu:I want this dish, this dish, and this dish.To interpret thisutterance, the waiter must have information about whoIrefersto, about the time at which the utterance is produced, and about what the threenoun phrasesthis dishrefer to." [5th ed. Thomson, 2008]
When people are together in conversation, it's easy to use deictics as a shorthand because of the common context between those presentthough those present don't actually have to be in the same location at the same time, just understand the context. In the case of movies and literature, the viewer or reader has enough context to understand the deictic expressions that the characters use in their dialogue.
Take this famous line from 1942's "Casablanca" uttered by Humphrey Bogart, playing character Rick Blaine, and note the deictic parts [in italics]:"Don'tyousometimes wonder if it's worth allthis? I mean whatyou're fighting for." If you someone walks in the room and hears only this one line out of context, it's difficult to understand; background is needed for the pronouns. Those viewers who've been watching the movie from the start, though, understand that Blaine is speaking with Victor Laszlo, the leader of a resistance movement and famous Jew who escaped the Nazisas well as Ilsa's husband, the woman Blaine is falling for in the flick. Entrenched viewers can follow along without further details because they have the context for the sentence spoken.