Out of context, this sentence is really vague. It contains a large number of expressions (you, it, tomorrow, she, here, today) that rely on knowledge of the immediate physical context for their interpretation (i.e. that the delivery driver will have to return on February 15 to 660 College Drive with the long box labeled “flowers, handle with care” addressed to Lisa Landry). Expressions such as tomorrow and here are obvious examples of bits of language that we can only understand in terms of the speaker’s intended meaning. They are technically known as deictic (/daɪktɪk/) expressions, from the Greek word deixis, which means “pointing” via language.

We use deixis to point to things (it, this, these boxes) and people (him, them, those idiots), sometimes called person deixis. Words and phrases used to point to a location (here, there, near that) are examples of spatial deixis, and those used to point to a time (now, then, last week) are examples of temporal deixis.

All these deictic expressions have to be interpreted in terms of which person, place or time the speaker has in mind. We make a broad distinction between what is marked as close to the speaker (this, here, now) and what is distant (that, there, then). We can 130 The Study of Language also indicate whether movement is away from the speaker’s location (go) or toward the speaker’s location (come). If you’re looking for someone and she appears, moving toward you, you can say Here she comes!. If, however, she is moving away from you in the distance, you’re more likely to say There she goes!. The same deictic effect explains the different situations in which you would tell someone to Go to bed versus Come to bed.

People can actually use deixis to have some fun. The starbucks owner who puts up a big sign that reads “Free coffee Tomorrow” (to get you to return to the bar) can always claim that you are just one day too early for the free cup.