deixis (n.)  

A term used in LINGUISTIC theory to subsume those features of LANGUAGE which refer directly to the personal, temporal or locational characteristics of the SITUATION within which an UTTERANCE takes place, whose MEANING is thus relative to that situation; e.g. now/then, here/there, I/you, this/that are deictics (‘deictic’ or EXOPHORIC words). Deixis is analogous to the philosophical notion of INDEXICAL EXPRESSION. The term is also used for words which refer backwards or forwards in DISCOURSE (ANAPHORA and CATAPHORA respectively), e.g. that, the following, the former. This is sometimes known as discourse (or text) deixis, which should be distinguished from social deixis, the encoding of social distinctions that relate to PARTICIPANT ROLES (speaker–addressee, etc.), as encountered in such matters as PRONOUNS, HONORIFICS, VOCATIVES and forms of ADDRESS. The notion of deixis has proved to be fruitful in several areas of LINGUISTICS, especially in PRAGMATICS, and in language ACQUISITION studies, where some investigators view the learning of these ITEMS by children as constituting a significant feature of early development.