A word specifying identity or spatial or temporal location from the perspective of a speaker or hearer in the context in which the communication occurs.
I encountered vagaries of deictic language when I worked in corporate. One incident in particular stands out in my mind. It was a memo from my boss. The memo that the paperwork and background research on a project had been done and it was time to send it on through the bureaucracy. He said it in a way that seemed funny to me:
"It is time to send our project to the people upstairs."
The "people upstairs" were un-named because it went without saying that these people were upper management: Vice-presidents, presidents, executives, oh my! My boss’s bosses, our bosses, everyone’s bosses.
The reason this sentence stands out in my mind is that the "people upstairs" were actually downstairs from us. My boss and I were on the 32nd Floor, the VPs and Executives to whom we were sending this project were on the 28th Floor. Nevertheless these people were regularly referred to as not just above us in the heirarchy but above us in the building when in fact they were below us.
I heard this deictic anomaly all the time. People regularly referred to those above them in the corporate scheme as "up" or "upstairs" when in fact they were downstairs or in some cases neither up nor down but lateral: Right down the hall!
I guess the corporate org chart creates its own reality, one in which physical proximity has nothing on designated (or imagined) levels of authority.
I think if you pay attention you can detect people’s feelings about each other in the words they use to refer to each other. So you wanna send that Christmas present down to me when I live north of you? Noted.
