1.1 The concept of deictic centre Deixis deals with the words and expressions whose reference relies entirely on the circumstances of the utterance. For that reason these special expressions and their meaning in discourse can only be understood in light of these circumstances. The term deictic centre underlines that the deictic term has to relate to the situation exactly at the point where the utterance is made or the text is written. One could even say that the deictic centre is the unmarked “anchorage point” from which the utterance is made. To decode the meaning of a sentence we use a “navigation system”. In our day-to-day conversational exchanges, the speaker does not consc