REFERENCE

Elements in a text refer to other elements

(their referents)

Achieved through the use of pronouns

articles

Reference

He’s played junkies and cities slickers, Jedi knights and

US rangers. He’s at home in Hollywood’s boulevards

and Glasgow’s tenements. He spends his life in the

arms of beautiful women and is happily married… It

seems Ewan McGregor can do anything he wants

A cataphoric reference unit refers to another unit that

is introduced later on in the text/speech. To understand

the unit refered to by a cataphoric reference you would

need to look ahead in the text/speech.

Here, the pronoun He is a Cataphoric reference because it refers to the noun

Ewan McGregor that is introduced later on the text.

Cataphoric reference

Anaphoric reference means that a word in a text

refers back to other ideas in the text for its meaning.

It can be compared with cataphoric reference, which

means a word refers to ideas later in the text.

"Susan dropped the plate. It shattered loudly"

the word "it" refers to the phrase "the plate".

Anaphoric reference

Reference through synonyms

A Bedouin once had business in the cattle market of a town. He took his young son with him, but in the confusion of the place he lost track of his boy and the child was stolen.

The father hired a crier to shout through the streets that a reward of one thousand was offered for the return of the child. Although the man who held the boy heard the crier, greed had opened his belly and he hoped to earn an even larger sum. So he waited and said nothing.

On the following day the crier was sent through the streets again...

Bedouin: the father

Bedouin’s son: son, boy, child

Town: the place