Journal of Language Volume 4, Number 2, pp: 220-228, November 2022 e-ISSN: 2685-8878 | p-ISSN: 2655-9080 https://jurnal.uisu.ac.id/index.php/journaloflanguage 220 Nationally Accredited in SINTA 4 and indexed in Copernicus DEICTIC EXPRESSIONS IN THE HOLY BIBLE OF LOCAL NIAS LANGUAGE Matias Serius Sarumaha, M. Ali Pawiro, Devi Pratiwy Faculty of Literature, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara Medan, Indonesia E-mail: matiassarumaha69@gmail.com Received: 2022-08-15 Accepted: 2022-10-24 Published: 2022-11-29 Abstract This research deals with the deictic expressions in the Holy Bible of local Nias language. The objectives of the study are to discuss and identify the deixis in the Holy Bible. The research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative design. The data were the epistle of Paul to Philemon which consist of 25 verses. They were collected and analyzed by using a documentation method. The steps were (1) reading the text, (2) finding and marking the deixis, (3) classifying the types of deixis, (4), finding the data, putting sign and making checklist on it, and (5) drawing the conclusions. The results of this research show that there are five types of deixis found in the epistle of Paul to Philemon in the Holy Bible of local Nias language; they are person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis, discourse deixis, and social deixis. The results also show that the deixis mostly found is the person deixis with the frequency of 65 (70%). The following deixis is social deixis that appears 10 times (11%). The discourse deixis appears with the frequency of 9 (10%) while the temporal deixis appears with the frequency of 7 (7%). The deixis that appears the least is spatial deixis with a frequency of 2 (2%). Keywords: deixis; Holy Bible; Nias language; pragmatics 1. Introduction Language is a natural object, a component of the human mind, physically represented in the brain and part of the biological endowment of the species (Chomsky, 2002: 1). Language is very important in human life because it serves as a tool for communication and interaction among people. Humans can convey feelings, ideas, opinions or suggestions to others through language. Without knowing the language that is being used, humans cannot understand each other. It means that humans can interact or express feeling only by using language. In the process of communication, people, using language, must consider the situation or context of the speaker. In this case, there are certain words that we can only understand the meaning if we know the context or situation of the speech. One cannot separate the language and context of the speech. For example, the words ‘you’, ‘there’, or ‘today’ do not have fixed references if the speaker and addressee can only understand the meaning of the word, without understanding the context behind the