ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the high frequency of deictic elements in spoken corpora. It explains the deictic and non-deictic uses of what is commonly the top most common word in any general corpus: the definite article 'the'. Deixis is manifested nonverbally through gestures and verbally through words. Deixis is part of the system of reference. It is literally fundamental to language. Young children, "long before they begin to speak", use a specific deictic gesture: they extend their index finger to point at something that interests them. It was noted earlier that deictic usage poses a major problem for children due to the frequently changing relationship between the referring expression and the referent: one and the same deictic term is used variably for, potentially, an infinite number of referents. The traditional fields of deixis include person, place, and time, corresponding to the 'deictic triad' of "here, now, and I".
