By default, the deictic center, the origo, is occupied by the speaker of an utterance. There are two ways that the origo can shift to somebody else:

1. By a conversational turn, an interlocutor becomes the new speaker.
2. The speaker transfers the origo to one of his referents.

In either case, deixis is shifted, i.e. the mapping of a deictic expression onto a referent or referential sphere changes. In case 1, the same person who was referred to by you is now referred to by I; and likewise for a set of other deictic expressions. In case 1, a new speech situation results, with the same deictic rules obtaining as before. Here only case 2, specifically the deictic shift in reported speech, is at stake.

To report a certain utterance made by Linda, I can say either or .

.	Linda said: ‘I am hungry.’
.	Linda said that she was hungry.

represents direct speech; represents indirect speech (q.v.). In direct speech, I cede the origo to somebody who was, up to then, only one of my referents, so that I in no longer refers to me, but to Linda. In indirect speech, I remain the origo; Linda keeps being referred to by the third person pronoun she. In either case, deixis shifts, although in the opposite sense:

• In direct speech, deixis shifts in the sense mentioned initially: I accept the other speaker's perspective, her utterance is reported such as she made it, so she generates a speech situation of her own, she dominates its deixis, and this determines the reference of deictic expressions in the reported utterance. ‘Deixis shifts’ here means: the same deictic expressions have one set of referents in the reporting utterance and a distinct set of referents in the reported utterance. The deictic shift in direct speech is a change in the reference of deictic expressions.

In indirect speech, I subordinate the reported utterance to my perspective. I continue to determine the reference of deictic expressions. The deixis the reported speaker used in her utterance is overturned; although she said I, this becomes she in my report. ‘Deixis shifts’ here means: referents of the reported utterance are no longer identified by the deictic expressions of the original utterance, but by deictic expressions centered around the reporting speaker. The deictic shift in indirect speech is a change of deictic expressions used for given referents.

Both of these operations may legitimately be called ‘deictic shift’. As a consequence, the term ‘deictic shift in reported speech’ is ambiguous. For precision, ‘deictic shift in direct speech’ and ‘deictic shift in indirect speech’ are available.