Definition of "deixis"

deixis

/ˈdaɪksɪs/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural deixes
1. (linguistics) 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.
  Quotations
  Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with utterances. It means 'pointing' via language. Any linguistic form used to accomplish this 'pointing' is called a deictic expression. When you notice a strange object and ask, 'What's that?', you are using a deictic expression ('that') to indicate something in the immediate context. Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexicals. They are among the first forms to be spoken by very young children and […]
  1996, George Yule, Pragmatics, Oxford University Press, page 9
  For those who treat language as a generative system for objectively describing the world, deixis is a big black fly in the ointment. Deixis introduces subjective, attentional, intentional and, of course, context-dependent properties into natural languages.
  2006, Stephen C. Levinson, "Dexis", chapter 5 of The Handbook of Pragmatics, Laurence R. Horn and Gregory Ward (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell , page 97