CATAPHORA

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CATAPHORA [Stress: ‘ka-TA-fo-ra’]. A forward reference in a text: the pronoun she is cataphoric in ‘If she wants to, Nora can be charming.’ Here, she substitutes for its antecedent Nora. The sentence exhibits cataphoric ellipsis, since she wants to is understood as she wants to be charming. Cataphora is less common than anaphora, in which the reference is backwards to a preceding part of the text. In broad terms, ANAPHORA subsumes cataphora.

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