REFERENCE

R e f e r e n c e

• Elements in a text refer to other elements (their referents)

• Achieved through the use of pronouns

articles

Cataphoric 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 nounEwan McGregor that is introduced later on the text.

Anaphoric 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".

Exophoric Reference: Outside the textThe third direction of reference is

outside the text, that is, to items that are not described explicitly in the text. This is called "exophoric reference" because exo means "outward." Reference words that refer outside a text are called "exophoric words." Exophoric words indicate assumed shared knowledge between the writer and the reader. Since the writer assumes that the reader knows what the exophoric words refer to, the writer does not bother to explain them in the text.

Exophoric ReferenceExample:

Finally on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces and 2the war in Europe was over.

1. The noun phrase the Allied Forces is exophoric; this word refers loosely to certain members of the fifty nations that opposed the Axis countries during World War 2.

Read through the following paragraph and examine the reference words. Determine whether they are anaphoric, cataphoric, or exophoric. Then read the explanations below it.

Finally on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces and 2the war in Europe was over. Finally on 7 May 1945, Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces and 2the war in Europe was over. By June of 1945, Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union had occupied 3the whole country. Immediately, 4they devised 5a system for controlling Germany: They divided Germany into four sectors-6three in the west and 6one in the east. They also divided 7the capital city into four sectors with Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union each administering one sector of 8the city. 9All four countries agreed to help rebuild German cities, farms, industries, and transportation systems. 10They also promised to promote the establishment of a democratic form of government in Germany

‘the’: back, forward, outsideThe dog was so proud of the boots that he agreed, and he sat down to take them off. The rabbit sat down next to the dog, pull on the boots and admired himself.

The: knowledge given, you know what is talking/speaking about

The is required when the noun it refers to represents something

named earlier in the text.

‘a’: new information• a dog...• a pair of boots...• a rabbit...When we first refer to something in

written text, we often use an indefinite article to modify it.

a dog the dog

new information changes into given/known information

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

Nominalization

Two writers have just mentioned how they first heard about ‘recovered memory’

Since we had come across the idea together we decided to write it together. Much of that process seems vague now, but I remember the day before we started writing...

refer back to previously mentioned

thoughts and events

Nominalization• Situation

• Process

• Way

• Idea

• Theory

• viewpoint

actions and events

ideas

Nominalization• Explanation

• Criticism

• Proposal

• Suggestion, etc

what has been said or written

Nominalization

‘HARD work, no pay, eternal,’ ran the internet ad for volunteers for a couple of weeks in a simulated Mars base at Devon Island in the high Arctic, or in the Utah desert. More than 400 applied. In Mars on Earth, Mars

Society president and astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin relates the checkered history of the project, as well as his experiences as a crew member. Zubrin describes himself as mercurial optimistic and romantic. It shows

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