How Deixis Relates to Referencing?
Referencing (anaphora, cataphora, and exophora) and deixis are closely related, but they are not identical.
Deixis is the broader idea that some expressions depend on the context of the speech situation for their interpretation. Typical deictic expressions include I, you, here, there, now, then, this, and that. Your Week 2 materials define deixis as context-dependent expressions such as here, now, this, and you.
The clearest connection is with exophoric reference. Exophoric reference points outside the text to something in the physical or situational context. For example:
“Put that over there.”
To interpret that and there, we need to know what the speaker is pointing to and where the interaction is taking place. In that sense, the expressions are both deictic and exophoric. Celce-Murcia and Olshtain explicitly describe this kind of situational reference as deictic reference.
By contrast, anaphoric and cataphoric reference are usually textual rather than situational. Your Chapter 3 materials make this distinction directly: anaphora points backward in the text, cataphora points forward, while exophoric reference depends on the situation.
A useful way to show the relationship is:
| Concept | Where meaning comes from | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Anaphoric reference | Earlier text | Maria arrived. She sat down. |
| Cataphoric reference | Later text | When he arrived, Carlos sat down. |
| Exophoric reference | Outside the text, in the situation | Put that over there. |
| Deixis | Speaker-centered context: person, place, time, discourse, etc. | I, you, here, now, this, that |
The most important distinction is:
Exophoric reference is often deictic, but deixis is a broader category.
For example, here is spatial deixis, now is temporal deixis, and I/you are person deixis. All depend on the context of speaking. When one of these forms points to something outside the text, it is functioning exophorically.
So to summarize…
Anaphoric = look back in the text
Cataphoric = look forward in the text
Exophoric = look outside the text
Deixis = interpret from the speaker’s context
That last distinction is especially useful because it helps learners see that reference is about what an expression points to, while deixis is about how interpretation depends on the context of the speaking event.
Exophoric reference means that the referent must be recovered from outside the text. Deixis is a particular kind of context-dependent reference whose interpretation depends on the speech situation—especially speaker, addressee, time, place, or discourse location.
So an exophoric expression can be non-deictic when its referent comes from shared background knowledge or the broader cultural/institutional context rather than from the immediate “who/where/when” of the utterance.
| Example | Exophoric expression | Why exophoric? | Why not (primarily) deictic? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The president will address the nation tonight. | the president | The text does not identify which president; outside knowledge supplies the referent. | the president does not inherently encode speaker, location, or time. |
| The university has changed its admissions policy. | the university | In a university community, participants may know which institution is intended. | The expression itself does not point to the speaker’s spatial/temporal position. |
| The government announced new regulations. | the government | Shared social/national context identifies the government. | It is a definite NP whose interpretation relies on background knowledge, not a deictic expression such as this or here. |
| The principal wants to see you. | the principal | Speakers within a school may share knowledge of who occupies that role. | The referent is recovered through institutional knowledge. |
| The final exam is worth 30% of your grade. | the final exam | Students in the course know which exam is intended, although it has not been mentioned in the text. | Identification comes from shared course knowledge rather than the immediate speech coordinates. |
| The cafeteria closes at six. | the cafeteria | Members of a campus community may know which cafeteria is intended. | No inherently deictic form identifies it; shared situational/institutional knowledge does. |
Compare these with clearly deictic exophoric examples:
- “That book is mine.” → that requires the physical/situational context.
- “Put it there.” → there depends on the speaker’s spatial perspective.
- “I’ll do it tomorrow.” → tomorrow depends on the time of speaking.
- “She is my professor.” [speaker points to someone] → she is interpreted through the immediate situation.
Review:
Exophoric reference = look outside the text for the referent.
Deixis = look to the speaker’s contextual coordinates to interpret the expression.
Therefore: “The dean has approved the proposal.”
If everyone at UAA knows which dean is meant, the dean can function exophorically through shared institutional knowledge without the dean itself being a deictic expression.
By contrast: “She approved this yesterday.”
she, this, and yesterday can all function exophorically, but their interpretation is tied much more directly to the immediate communicative context and is therefore deictic.
One caveat: terminology varies among discourse analysts. Some use deixis very broadly, to the point that much situational/exophoric reference can be described as deictic. Under the narrower linguistic definition, however, shared-knowledge definite descriptions such as the dean, the government, and the final exam are especially useful examples of exophoric reference without inherently deictic forms.