anaphora (n.)

A term used in GRAMMATICAL description for the process or result of a linguistic UNIT deriving its interpretation from some previously expressed unit or meaning (the ANTECEDENT). Anaphoric reference is one way of marking the identity between what is being expressed and what has already been expressed. In such a sentence as He did that there, each word has an anaphoric reference (i.e. they are anaphoric substitutes, or simply anaphoric words): the previous sentence might have been John painted this picture in Bermuda, fذor instance, and each word in the response would be anaphorically related to a corresponding unit in the preceding CONTEXT. Anaphora is often contrasted with CATAPHORA (where the words refer forward), and sometimes with DEIXIS or EXOPHORA (where the words refer directly to the extralinguistic SITUATION). It may, however, also be found subsuming both forwards- and backwards-referring functions. The process of establishing the antecedent of an anaphor is called anaphora (or anaphor) resolution, and is an important research aim in PSYCHOLINGUISTICS and COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS.