deixis [noun] refers to those features of language which refer directly to the personal, temporal [when] or locational [where] characteristics of the situation within which an utterance takes place. Deictic or exophoric words are, for example: now, then, here, there, this , that etc. Also includes words which indicate forwards and backwards in discourse [ anaphora and cataphora] such as : the former, after, that, the following, etc. This is text deixis - different from social deixis, which encodes social distinctions e.g. between speaker and listener - you and a waiter, for example, in the way people are addressed, use of vocative, honorifics and so on.
If you are srudying linguistics and having difficulty with the terminology, get yourself something like Crystal's Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics