Deixis

When two people are talking to each other, each utterance is such that there’s a speaker and a listener. Furthermore, there’s everybody who’s neither the speaker nor the listener.

When a first-person pronoun is used (e.g., “I,” “me”), the speaker is referring to themselves. But it’s also possible for the speaker to refer to something close to themselves (e.g., “this,” “these”) or somewhere close to themselves (e.g., “here”).

In deixis, there’s:

  1. The speaker
  2. The listener
  3. Neither the speaker nor the listener
  4. The location in space of the speaker, the listener, or neither the speaker nor the listener
  5. The location in time of the utterance

Thus, it’s possible to refer to:

  1. The speaker of the utterance
  2. The listener
  3. Neither the speaker nor the listener
  4. Something near the speaker of the utterance
  5. Something near the listener
  6. Something near neither the speaker nor the listener
  7. Somewhere near the speaker of the utterance
  8. Somewhere near the listener
  9. Somewhere near neither the speaker nor the listener
  10. The past with respect to the utterance
  11. The present with respect to the utterance
  12. The future with respect to the utterance

There’s also:

  1. Male vs. female
  2. Singular vs. plural