Anaphoric and Cataphoric Reference According to David Nunan
2.1.1 Referential cohesion
Anaphoric and cataphoric reference
- Anaphoric reference: points the reader or listener backwards to a previously mentioned entity, process or state of affairs.
Eg: The postman has just left. He forgot to get the signature.
- Cataphoric reference: points the reader or listener forward to identify the elements to which the reference items refer further into the text.
Eg: He can sense something really bad incoming. The storm is approaching.
Personal, demonstrative and comparative reference
These various devices enable writer or speaker to make multiple references to people and things within a text.
1. Personal reference:
- Being expressed through pronouns & determiners.
- To identify individuals & objects that are named at some other point in the text.
- Eg:
+ If the buyer wants to look the condition of the property, he has to have another survey. One carried out on his own behalf.
+ Yesterday evening I got home from work at 6 o'clock. My wife had prepared dinner which we ate immediately.
2. Demonstrative reference:
- Being expressed through determiners & adverbs.
- Can present a single word or phrase or much longer chunks of text.
- Eg:
+ Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again.
+ I like the lions and I like the polar bears. These are my favorites and those are my favorites too.
3. Comparative reference:
- Being expressed through adjectives & adverbs.
- To compare items within a text in terms of identity or similarity.
- Eg:
+ Look! There’s a cat in the tree - It’s the same cat from the one we saw yesterday.
+ He made more mistakes than I did.
+ She’s a better scholar than the whole rest of
Anaphoric and cataphoric reference
- Anaphoric reference: points the reader or listener backwards to a previously mentioned entity, process or state of affairs.
Eg: The postman has just left. He forgot to get the signature.
- Cataphoric reference: points the reader or listener forward to identify the elements to which the reference items refer further into the text.
Eg: He can sense something really bad incoming. The storm is approaching.
Personal, demonstrative and comparative reference
These various devices enable writer or speaker to make multiple references to people and things within a text.
1. Personal reference:
- Being expressed through pronouns & determiners.
- To identify individuals & objects that are named at some other point in the text.
- Eg:
+ If the buyer wants to look the condition of the property, he has to have another survey. One carried out on his own behalf.
+ Yesterday evening I got home from work at 6 o'clock. My wife had prepared dinner which we ate immediately.
2. Demonstrative reference:
- Being expressed through determiners & adverbs.
- Can present a single word or phrase or much longer chunks of text.
- Eg:
+ Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there again.
+ I like the lions and I like the polar bears. These are my favorites and those are my favorites too.
3. Comparative reference:
- Being expressed through adjectives & adverbs.
- To compare items within a text in terms of identity or similarity.
- Eg:
+ Look! There’s a cat in the tree - It’s the same cat from the one we saw yesterday.
+ He made more mistakes than I did.
+ She’s a better scholar than the whole rest of