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deictic - 3 dictionary results

deic⋅tic

  [dahyk-tik]
Use deictic in a Sentence
–adjective
1. Logic. proving directly.
2. Grammar. specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of one or more of the participants in an act of speech or writing, in the context of either an external situation or the surrounding discourse, as we, you, here, there, now, then, this, that, the former, or the latter.
–noun
3. Grammar. a deictic element.
Origin:
1820–30; < Gk deiktikós demonstrative, equiv. to deikt(ós) able to be proved, v. adj. of deiknýnai to show, prove, point + -ikos -ic

Related forms:
deic⋅ti⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To deictic
deic·tic   (dīk'tĭk)   
adj.  
  1. Logic Directly proving by argument.
  2. Linguistics Of or relating to a word, the determination of whose referent is dependent on the context in which it is said or written. In the sentence I want him to come here now, the words I, here, him, and now are deictic because the determination of their referents depends on who says that sentence, and where, when, and of whom it is said.
n.  A deictic word, such as I or there.

[Greek deiktikos, from deiktos, able to show directly, from deiknunai, to show; see deik- in Indo-European roots.]
deic'ti·cal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Deictic

Deic"tic\, a. [Gr. deiktiko`s serving to show or point out, fr. deikny`nai to show.] (Logic) Direct; proving directly; -- applied to reasoning, and opposed to elenchtic or refutative.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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