Types of Deixis

Deixis is when words “point” to something that depends on context. The three types of deixis are:
personal deixis, referring to a person;
spatial deixis, referring to a place;
and temporal deixis, referring to a time;

To demonstrate the three types, let’s look at the following example dialogue. the deictic words are italicized.

• Person 2: Hey, you, is James here?

• Person 1: No, he’s not here right now, But you can come back tomorrow.

• Person 2: Just tell him to meet me outside tonight.

Now let’s look at the occurences of the three kinds of deixis in this example.

• Personal Deixis: you, he, him, me

• Spatial Deixis: here, outside

• Temporal Deixis: now, tomorrow, tonight