Knowra Indexicality Indexicality Indexicality is the relation in which a sign points to or is causally connected with what it represents. Smoke, for example, can indicate fire through a physical connection.
Charles Sanders Peirce : An American philosopher who developed a theory of signs organized around icons, indexes, and symbols. His classification established indexicality as one of three basic sign relations.
Causality : The relation in which one event or condition brings about or contributes to another. Causal links let effects such as smoke function as signs of their causes.
Demonstrative : A word such as “this” or “that” that identifies a referent using context or pointing. Demonstratives link words to objects through a context-sensitive pointing relation.
Pragmatics : The study of how context contributes to the interpretation of language. Pragmatics examines how context helps determine what indexical expressions mean.
Semiotics : The study of signs, sign systems, and processes of signification. Indexicality is one relation examined within the broader study of signs.
Index (semiotics) : A sign connected to its object by physical, causal, or contextual relations. An index is the sign type defined by indexicality.
Personal pronoun : A pronoun whose reference depends on its grammatical person and context of use. Pronouns such as “I” shift reference with the speaker, an indexical pattern.
Enunciation : The act of producing an utterance in a particular situation, with a speaker, time, and place. Indexical expressions anchor meaning to the circumstances of enunciation.
Sign (semiotics) : In semiotics, something that stands for or indicates something else to an interpreter. Indexicality describes a relation between a sign and what it indicates.
Deixis : The linguistic phenomenon in which expressions such as “I,” “here,” and “now” depend on context for reference. Deictic words point to people, places, and times through the speech situation.
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