1. Deixis and distance
Deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with utterances. It means ' pointing ' via language. Any linguistic form used to accomplish this ' pointing ' is called a deictic expression. Deictic expressions are also sometimes called indexicals.
They are among the first forms to be spoken by very young children and can be used to indicate :
people via person deixis ( ' me ' , ' you ' ) ,
location via spatial deixis ( ' here ' , ' there ' ) ,
time via temporal deixis ( now ' , ' then ' )
In English, the ' near speaker or proximal terms, are ' this ' , ' here ' , ' now ' . The ' away from speaker ' , or distal terms , are ' that ' , ' there ' , ' then ' .
All these expressions depend, for their interpretation, on the speaker and hearer sharing the same context.