If you want to translate this, that, here, there, now, then, today, tomorrow, yesterday, come, go, bring and take accurately, you are solving a viewpoint problem. These words do not carry complete meaning inside themselves. Their interpretation depends on who is speaking, where the speaker and listener are, when the utterance happens, and which point in space or time the discourse treats as its centre.
That makes deixis in translation one of the clearest examples of why translation cannot be reduced to word replacement. A source sentence may be perfectly clear because everyone knows what here or tomorrow refers to. Move the sentence into another language, another document, a subtitle, a quoted message or reported speech, and the same expression may need to shift. A translator has to preserve the reference point, not merely the dictionary form.
A reliable method for translating deictic words is to reconstruct the scene before choosing the target wording. Ask: who is speaking, who is being addressed, where are they, when is “now,” what object is near or distant, and whose perspective controls motion? Once the deictic centre is clear, expressions such as this/that, here/there, now/then, come/go, bring/take become much easier to translate without changing viewpoint.
Quick answer: what is deixis?
Deixis is the way language points from words to the situation in which those words are used.
Consider:
I am here now.
To understand the sentence, you need to know:
- who I refers to;
- where here is;
- when now is.
The words are grammatical, but their full reference comes from context.
That is why deictic expressions are sometimes described as “indexical”: they point outward from the sentence to a person, place, time or discourse location.
For translators, the practical lesson is simple:
translate the anchor, not just the expression.
The deictic centre
Many deictic words are interpreted relative to a centre.
The default centre is often:
- the current speaker;
- the speaker’s current location;
- the time of speaking.
But real discourse is more flexible.
A speaker can adopt the listener’s location as a centre.
A narrator can place the reader inside a character’s viewpoint.
A future meeting place can become a projected centre.
A quoted message can preserve the original speaker’s centre even when the translator is working much later.
So the deictic centre is not merely a GPS coordinate. It is a viewpoint selected by communication.
Person deixis: who is “I,” “you,” “we” and “they”?
Pronouns are the most obvious form of person deixis.
I will send you the file.
The identity of I and you comes from the speech event.
In direct translation, the roles may remain simple.
But complications begin when the text is embedded.
Original message:
I will send you the file tomorrow.
A manager reports this later:
Mei said she would send me the file the next day.
The person roles have changed.
I becomes she.
you becomes me.
tomorrow becomes the next day.
Translation has to reconstruct the speaker-listener relation rather than preserve each source word mechanically.
Inclusive and exclusive “we”
Some languages distinguish two kinds of we:
- inclusive we: speaker + listener;
- exclusive we: speaker + others, excluding the listener.
English normally uses we for both.
Suppose a teacher says to students:
We will start the test at nine.
Does we include the students? Almost certainly yes.
Now suppose an organiser tells a client:
We will review your application tomorrow.
Here we probably means the organisation, excluding the client.
A target language that requires an inclusive/exclusive distinction forces the translator to infer group membership.
Do not decide from the word alone. Read the social roles.
Social person reference
Person deixis can carry status, politeness and relationship.
English you covers singular and plural, formal and informal in standard contemporary usage.
Other languages may distinguish:
- one person versus several;
- familiar versus respectful address;
- older versus younger;
- status differences;
- in-group versus out-group relations.
A translator therefore sometimes has to recover information that English leaves implicit.
The safe principle is not “add politeness.” It is:
infer the relationship only when the context supports it.
Do not invent intimacy, hierarchy or disrespect.
Spatial deixis: this and that
English often uses this for something construed as near and that for something construed as more distant.
this book
that building
But physical distance is only part of the system.
A speaker can say:
Listen to this idea.
The idea is not physically near. It is being introduced into the speaker’s current attention.
A speaker can also say:
That was a difficult year.
The distance is temporal or psychological.
When translating this/that, identify what kind of distance is active:
- physical;
- temporal;
- discourse;
- emotional;
- contrastive.
Demonstratives are not universal equivalents
Languages divide demonstrative space differently.
Some use two terms roughly like English this/that.
Some distinguish near speaker, near listener and far from both.
Some encode visibility.
Some distinguish elevation, direction or discourse status.
That means the source category and target category may not line up one-to-one.
If English says:
that bag
the target language may need to know whether the bag is near the listener or far from both participants.
The translator may need wider situational context.
“Here” and “there”
Here and there look like simple location words.
But consider a phone call.
Speaker A is in Singapore.
Speaker B is in Tokyo.
A says:
How is the weather there?
There means the listener’s location.
Now B says:
It is raining here.
Here refers to the same city.
The physical place has not changed. The deictic centre has.
Translation must follow the active speaker.
Projected location
Speakers can project themselves into another place.
Imagine two people arranging a future meeting:
I will meet you there at eight.
Neither may currently be at the location.
There points to a place already established in the conversation.
Or:
When you arrive at the hotel, call me. I will meet you there.
The second there is discourse-linked to the hotel.
A translator should trace the antecedent, not assume every there is spatially defined by the current speaker.
Temporal deixis: now, then, today
Time expressions depend on a temporal centre.
I am busy now.
Now means the time of speaking.
I was busy then.
Then points to a previously established time.
I will finish today.
Today refers to the calendar day containing the utterance.
When translating live speech, these relations may transfer directly.
When translating archived messages, reports, captions or historical material, they may need careful handling.
“Today” can become misleading outside the original context
Suppose an article published on 1 March says:
The new rule takes effect today.
If that sentence is translated months later and presented without the original date, today can mislead readers.
A translator or editor may need to preserve the original reference more explicitly:
The new rule took effect on 1 March.
Whether such a change is allowed depends on the translation brief.
The key is to distinguish translation from contextual updating. If the task requires faithful historical reproduction, retain the original temporal reference and ensure the publication date remains visible. If the task requires a current reader-facing adaptation, an explicit date may be safer.
Tomorrow and yesterday
These words are relational, not absolute.
tomorrow = the day after the deictic day
yesterday = the day before the deictic day
In direct speech:
I will call tomorrow.
In reported speech later:
She said she would call the next day.
The shift from tomorrow to the next day is not mandatory in every language or style. But the translator must ensure that the target reader identifies the correct day.
Time zones create real translation problems
Imagine a live global event.
A message says:
The session starts tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Whose tomorrow? Which time zone?
The source may rely on a local audience that already knows.
A translated version for a global audience may need an explicit zone if the communication brief permits clarification.
This is not because translation should invent information. It is because deictic expressions often rely on shared context. When the audience changes, the old context may disappear.
The translator should identify the missing anchor and escalate or clarify rather than guess.
Motion deixis: come and go
English motion verbs can encode viewpoint.
A speaker says:
Come to my office.
The motion is toward the speaker’s relevant centre.
Now:
Go to the office.
The movement is toward another location treated as outside the current centre.
But real English is more flexible.
A person on the phone may say:
Can I come to your house?
The speaker is not at the destination. The listener’s location becomes the relevant centre.
So come is not simply “motion toward the physical speaker.”
It is motion toward a contextually relevant centre.
Bring and take
A common teaching rule says:
bring = movement toward the speaker
take = movement away from the speaker
That rule is useful, but incomplete.
A teacher at school says:
Bring your workbook tomorrow.
A student at home says:
I need to take my workbook to school tomorrow.
The workbook follows the same physical route.
The verbs differ because the speakers organise the event from different centres.
Translation should preserve the perspective that makes the motion natural.
Narrative viewpoint
Deixis also appears in storytelling.
Compare:
A stranger came to the cottage.
A stranger went to the cottage.
The first sentence often positions the narrative viewpoint at or near the cottage. The stranger arrives into the scene.
The second can position the viewpoint elsewhere and follow the stranger’s movement away.
A translator who changes came to an equivalent of went may alter narrative camera position.
This matters in literary translation, but also in ordinary storytelling.
Deictic verbs in reported speech
Original:
“Come here tomorrow,” she said.
Reported later:
She told him to go there the next day.
That transformation may be appropriate if the reporting speaker is outside the original scene.
But another narrator could preserve:
She told him to come there the next day.
depending on viewpoint.
There is no universal mechanical substitution.
Reported speech is a reconstruction of person, place and time anchors.
Discourse deixis
Words such as this and that can point to parts of the discourse itself.
This is the main problem: the data is incomplete.
Here this points forward.
The data is incomplete. That is the main problem.
Here that points backward.
A target language may use different demonstratives, pronouns or sentence structures for forward versus backward reference.
The translator should identify the textual function.
“This” can signal closeness to an idea
Writers sometimes use this to keep an idea active.
The experiment failed twice. This result changed the research plan.
This result picks up the immediately preceding event and presents it as current discourse focus.
A translation that uses a distant or weak demonstrative may subtly reduce cohesion.
Deixis therefore contributes to paragraph structure.
Psychological distance
Demonstratives can express attitude.
Compare:
I like this plan.
I cannot believe that plan was approved.
The contrast may involve more than physical distance.
Speakers sometimes use distal forms to create emotional distance, disapproval or detachment.
Other languages have their own ways of marking stance.
Do not automatically import emotional meaning from every that, but be aware that demonstrative choice can participate in evaluation.
Recognition use: “that guy,” “that song”
Speakers can use a demonstrative when they expect shared recognition.
Do you remember that restaurant near the station?
The restaurant may not be physically distant. That helps reactivate a shared referent.
The target language may use a demonstrative, article, memory construction or another device.
The function is:
identify a referent assumed to be recoverable from shared knowledge.
Place names can replace deictic ambiguity
In practical translation, repeating a place name can sometimes be safer than preserving here/there if the target context has shifted.
Source email:
We will meet there at 3 p.m.
If the translated email follows a paragraph naming “Conference Room B,” there may remain clear.
If formatting separates the sentence from its context, repeating the room name may reduce ambiguity.
Whether that is acceptable depends on the task.
Faithful translation does not mean refusing all explicitness. It means preserving meaning without unnecessary invention.
Deixis in subtitles
Subtitles create special pressure because viewers can see the scene.
A character points and says:
Put it there.
The image supplies the location.
The subtitle should not over-explain:
Put it on the table beside the blue chair.
unless the source says that.
Visual context is part of the meaning environment.
Subtitlers translate in coordination with the screen, not in isolation from it.
Deixis in interfaces
Software interfaces use expressions such as:
- click here;
- go back;
- continue below;
- see above;
- return to this page.
These terms depend on interface geometry.
A localisation may change layout, text direction or navigation structure.
If below is no longer below, literal translation becomes functionally wrong.
Interface translation must preserve navigational relation, not historical word choice.
Deixis in maps and directions
Directions combine spatial reference with traveller viewpoint.
Turn left here.
Go straight until you reach that building.
Bring the form to this counter.
The reference point often depends on where the user is expected to stand.
Translated signage may be read from a different physical position if the layout changes.
A translator working on wayfinding should verify the deployed environment, not only the string list.
Deixis in classroom language
Teachers constantly use context-dependent expressions:
Write this down.
Put your books there.
Come here.
Do this question now.
For a live interpreter, gesture and classroom position matter.
For a printed translation of instructions, the gestures disappear.
The translator may need to replace context-dependent forms with explicit references if the medium changes.
This is a medium problem as much as a language problem.
Deixis in legal and administrative forms
Formal texts sometimes use expressions such as:
on this date
the aforementioned document
the undersigned
hereinafter
These are specialised reference systems.
They may point within the document rather than to physical context.
The translator should distinguish everyday deixis from legal textual reference.
A term like hereinafter essentially means:
from this point onward in the document.
The anchor is textual position.
Deixis and quotations
Quotations create nested centres.
Article writer:
On Monday, the minister said, “We will announce the decision tomorrow.”
The word tomorrow belongs to the quoted speaker’s Monday, not the publication date of the article.
If translated on Thursday, it still refers to Tuesday.
A translator who silently updates tomorrow to Friday destroys the quotation’s temporal structure.
Nested voices require nested anchors.
A deictic map before translation
For difficult passages, create a quick map.
Record:
- Speaker:
- Addressee:
- Time of utterance:
- Speaker location:
- Addressee location:
- Relevant object/location:
- Quoted speaker, if any:
- Narrative viewpoint:
- Publication or report time:
Then mark each deictic expression.
This takes less than a minute and can prevent multiple errors.
The anchor-substitution test
Take a source sentence:
I will bring this there tomorrow.
It looks simple. It is almost uninterpretable without context.
Replace the deictic expressions with anchors:
Mei will carry the red folder from home to the school office on Tuesday.
Now the event is clear.
You do not necessarily publish that explicit sentence. The exercise simply reveals the semantic structure you must preserve.
The camera test
For spatial and narrative deixis, ask:
Where is the camera?
In:
A taxi came toward the hotel.
the camera feels near the hotel.
In:
A taxi went toward the hotel.
the camera may travel with someone elsewhere.
The “camera” is a practical metaphor for viewpoint.
When the target verb system differs, preserve the event from the same observational position when possible.
The calendar test
For temporal deixis, convert relative time into a date mentally.
If the source is spoken on 18 September:
tomorrow = 19 September
yesterday = 17 September
next week = a context-dependent future week
Then inspect the target.
Does the target still point to the same interval?
This is especially important when translating schedules, news reports, messages and transcripts.
The role-switch test
For person deixis, swap speaker and listener mentally.
Original:
Can you bring this to me?
If the listener repeats the instruction:
She asked me to take that to her.
Several forms may shift at once:
- you → me;
- this → that;
- me → her;
- bring → take.
This demonstrates why reported speech cannot be translated by changing tense alone.
Deixis and cultural conventions
Languages differ in how often they name people, use pronouns, omit subjects or rely on context.
A language may drop pronouns because person is recoverable from the verb.
Another may repeat names to avoid ambiguity.
A target language may distinguish respectful address.
The translator should preserve participant relations while following target-language conventions.
Formal sameness is not semantic fidelity.
Common error: freezing the source speaker
A translator reads:
See you here tomorrow.
and automatically translates here with the closest target equivalent.
But suppose the translation appears on a sign that will be read at another location.
The original centre may no longer exist.
This is why localisation and adaptation briefs matter.
If the translated text is meant to function in a new environment, the translator must verify whether deictic references remain valid.
Common error: changing quotation anchors
Another error is “helpfully” updating quoted relative time.
Source archive:
On 4 June, she wrote, “I will arrive tomorrow.”
Wrong modernised translation:
“I will arrive tomorrow.”
presented without the 4 June frame.
Now readers interpret a different date.
Preserve the original anchor or make the date explicit.
Common error: treating “come” and “go” as map arrows only
The physical route is not enough.
Speaker in London calls friend in Paris:
I will come to Paris next month.
Movement is away from the speaker’s current location, yet come is natural because the listener’s location becomes the centre.
If the target language has stricter motion-deixis rules, the equivalent may differ.
Translate the viewpoint system of the target language, not an English classroom slogan.
Common error: over-explicating
Because deictic expressions depend on context, translators may be tempted to replace every one with a full noun phrase.
Source:
Put it there.
Overwritten target:
Put the red folder on the second shelf beside the printer.
If the source did not specify that information, the translation has invented it.
Use available context to interpret, not to add unnecessary detail.
Deixis and ambiguity
Sometimes a source is genuinely ambiguous.
Message:
Meet me there tomorrow.
If the preceding conversation has two possible locations, the translator should not guess.
The correct professional action may be to query the author, client or editor.
Translation competence includes knowing when the source does not provide enough information.
AI translation and deictic drift
AI systems can translate fluent sentences without access to the physical scene.
That creates predictable risks.
A model may choose:
- come instead of go;
- bring instead of take;
- this instead of that;
- tomorrow based on current system time rather than quoted time;
- a pronoun relation based on statistical expectation.
When translating context-dependent language with AI, provide the context explicitly.
For example:
Speaker A is at home. Speaker B is at school. Translate A’s sentence to B: “I will come there now.”
The richer prompt gives the system the anchors needed for a better decision.
Translation memory and stale deixis
Reused translations can become wrong when context changes.
A stored segment:
Click here to continue.
may work in one interface.
Reusing it in a mobile screen where the link has moved can create awkward or misleading navigation.
Context-sensitive strings should not be treated as universally reusable units.
Review their deployment environment.
Deixis and accessibility
Accessibility adds another reason to avoid unnecessary spatial references.
Instructions such as:
click the button on the right
can fail when layouts reflow or screen readers present content linearly.
A more robust instruction might name the button:
select “Continue.”
In localisation, the most durable reference is often the semantic label rather than visual position.
A practical six-step method
Step 1: identify the speaker
Who owns I, we, here, now?
Step 2: identify the addressee
Who does you refer to? Can the listener’s location become a centre?
Step 3: identify time
What date or moment is the original now?
Step 4: identify place
Where are the relevant participants and objects?
Step 5: identify viewpoint
Does the source adopt speaker, listener, character, narrator or future-location perspective?
Step 6: verify the target anchors
After translating, replace target deictic expressions mentally with their referents. Do they still point to the same people, places and times?
Worked example: direct message
Source context:
Mei is at the library. Arun is at home.
Mei texts:
Can you bring that book here tomorrow?
Meaning map:
- you = Arun;
- that book = book near Arun or already identified;
- here = library;
- tomorrow = day after message;
- bring = move book toward Mei’s centre.
A target translation should preserve that geometry.
If the target language selects demonstratives relative to both speaker and listener, the correct form may depend on where the book is.
Worked example: reported message
Next day, Arun tells a librarian:
Mei asked me to bring the book there that day.
Depending on language and context, a more natural report may name the library or use a different motion verb.
The event has not changed. The reporting centre has.
This is why a good translator separates:
event coordinates from word coordinates.
Worked example: historical quotation
A diary entry dated 12 May says:
We leave tomorrow. This city no longer feels like home.
A translation published years later should preserve tomorrow relative to 12 May and this city relative to the diarist’s location.
Replacing tomorrow with the reader’s tomorrow would be absurd.
Replacing this city with that city may also change the diarist’s immediacy.
Quoted voice deserves its own centre.
A connection to vocabulary
Deictic words show why vocabulary knowledge includes use, viewpoint and context.
Knowing that here refers to a location is not enough.
A learner must know whose location, under what discourse conditions, and how the word contrasts with there.
The wider Vocabulary Learning Hub treats vocabulary as usable relationships rather than isolated definitions.
A connection to How English Works
English grammar and discourse determine how pronouns, demonstratives, tense, reported speech and motion verbs anchor meaning.
The broader How English Works architecture helps explain these systems before translation begins.
When source-language viewpoint is understood, target-language choices become much more controlled.
A connection to the master translation architecture
This article sits inside the wider Master Art of Translation system.
The master job is to move meaning between languages without losing the relations that make the meaning true.
Deixis is a test of that discipline because the meaning partly lives outside the sentence.
The translator must carry the invisible coordinate system with the visible words.
Final principle
When translating I, you, we, this, that, here, there, now, then, today, tomorrow, yesterday, come, go, bring or take, do not ask only:
What is the target-language equivalent?
Ask:
Who is speaking?
Who is listening?
Where is the active centre?
What time is “now”?
Which object is near or distant to whom?
Whose viewpoint controls the motion?
Is the sentence quoted, reported, narrated or localised?
Then verify that the target expression still points to the same person, place, time and perspective.
A fluent translation can still point in the wrong direction. A precise translation keeps the coordinates intact.
Deixis in email threads and forwarded messages
Email translation creates a common viewpoint trap because the message may be read far from the original time and place.
Original email:
I am in the main office now. Please come here after lunch.
If the message is forwarded to another team or translated into a report, now and here may no longer be self-explanatory.
A translator should first recover:
- the sender’s location;
- the original send time;
- the intended recipient;
- the meaning of after lunch in that organisation.
If the task is to translate the email faithfully, preserve the original speaker’s viewpoint. If the task is to summarise the email for current action, absolute references may be more useful. Those are different jobs and should not be confused.
Deixis in schedules and event notices
Event notices frequently combine relative time with fixed time.
Join us here next Friday at 7 p.m.
The expression next Friday can itself be interpreted differently across communities depending on what day the sentence is read. Here depends on where the notice appears. If the notice is copied to another webpage, both anchors may weaken.
A robust translation workflow records absolute event data separately from prose:
- venue;
- date;
- local time;
- time zone.
Then the translated wording can be checked against those facts.
This matters because a perfectly grammatical translated invitation is still a failure if the reader arrives on the wrong day or at the wrong place.
Deixis in charts, diagrams and textbooks
Educational texts often say:
as shown here
in the diagram below
this line
that result
These expressions depend on layout.
When translation changes text length, page breaks can shift. A diagram that was “below” may move to the next page. A table that was “above” may be placed beside the paragraph.
Therefore, layout-dependent deixis should be checked after typesetting, not only during initial translation.
A useful production rule is:
translate spatial cross-references provisionally, then verify them in the final layout.
This is especially important in textbooks, manuals and examination materials.
Deictic centre shifts inside one paragraph
A paragraph can move between centres without announcing the change.
I was waiting at the station when Lina called from home. “Can you come here?” she asked. I told her I would be there in ten minutes.
The first station establishes the narrator’s location.
Inside the quotation, here belongs to Lina and means home.
After the quotation, there belongs to the narrator and also means home.
One physical place is encoded first as here and then as there because the speaker changes.
This is an excellent translation exercise because it proves that dictionary replacement cannot solve deixis. The translator must track voice line by line.
Deixis and free indirect style
Literary narration can partially adopt a character’s viewpoint without quotation marks.
Tomorrow would be better. Here, at least, nobody knew her name.
Who owns tomorrow and here?
The grammar may be third-person narration, but the temporal and spatial centre can belong to the character.
A translation that recentres the sentence on the external narrator can flatten the prose.
When translating fiction, ask not only “who is grammatically speaking?” but also:
whose consciousness supplies the coordinates?
This is part of preserving narrative perspective.
Cross-language differences in time reference
Languages do not package temporal reference identically.
Some rely heavily on tense morphology.
Some rely more on aspect, particles or time adverbials.
Some omit tense marking where context makes time clear.
As a result, translating now or then is not always a matter of inserting a matching adverb. The target language may already encode the relevant contrast elsewhere.
The same principle applies to person and space: semantic information can migrate from one word class to another.
Translation fidelity therefore means preserving the coordinate relation, not preserving the number of deictic words.
Deixis and emergency communication
Emergency instructions often need unusually stable reference.
A message such as:
Leave here now and go there.
is useless without shared situational knowledge.
Operational communication is safer when locations are named:
Leave Building A now and move to Assembly Point 3.
If a translator encounters vague deictic wording in a safety-critical source, the correct response may be to flag the ambiguity rather than confidently produce an equally vague translation.
The translator should not invent the evacuation point, but should recognise that missing anchors are a functional risk.
Final quality-control checklist for deictic translation
Before publishing or delivering a translation, check every important deictic expression.
For person:
- Do pronouns still refer to the correct participants?
- Did direct speech become reported speech, or vice versa?
- Did an inclusive/exclusive distinction need to be made?
For place:
- What does here/there refer to?
- Is the target text deployed in the same physical location?
- Did layout changes affect words such as above/below?
For time:
- What calendar date does today/tomorrow/yesterday mean?
- Is the original time visible to the reader?
- Does a quotation preserve its original temporal centre?
For motion:
- Toward whose centre does the movement run?
- Does the target language organise come/go or bring/take differently?
For discourse:
- What does this/that point to in the text?
- Is the reference still recoverable after translation and layout?
If those answers remain stable, the translation has probably preserved the invisible coordinate system that deictic language depends on.