Anaphoric Reference

Anaphora

Indirect anophora

Anaphoric reference

Cataphora

Zero anaphora or ellipsis

e.g. In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat. The man was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. He said something to her and they started laughing a man , a woman, a cat

Anaphoric Referencethe the man,

woman, the cat, it, they, he, her

After the initial introduction of some entity, speakers will use various expressions to maintain reference, generally known as Anaphoric Reference

Can I borrow your book? Yeah, it is on the desk. Anaphora is a subsequent reference to an already introduced entity. Mostly we use anaphora in a text to maintain reference. The initial expression is antecedent and the second or subsequent expression is the anaphor book=antecedent, it= anaphor Anaphora has the pattern: antecedent-anaphor

I turned the corner and almost stepped on it. There was a large snake in the middle of the path. It = anaphor; a large snake= antecedent

Anaphor-antecedent (anaphor precedes the antecedent) is the pattern of Cataphora

Put the chicken in the pan and fry it for 10 minutes Put the chicken in the pan and fry for 10 minutes = it=the chicken

When the interpretation requires reader or listener identify an entity without linguistic expression The use of zero anaphora clearly creates an expectation that the listener will be able to infer who or what the speaker intends to identify

I was waiting for the bus, but he just drove by without stopping He driver person driving the bus the bus

As with other types of reference, the connection between referent and anaphora may not always be direct. Making sense this requires an inference to make the anaphoric connection