This post includes a detailed analysis of Anaphoric and Cataphoric Reference along with exophoric references and homophoric references in discourse.
To begin with, let’s have a look at the Anaphoric and Cataphoric Reference:
Anaphoric Reference
Definition
Anaphoric reference is where a word or phrase refers back to another word or phrase used earlier in a text.
Example:
“It seems everyone’s read that self-help book: Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s He’s Just Not That Into You . . . First in the US, then all over the world, women became converts to the book’s tough love message. When it was published late last year, Oprah sang its praises, tearful women called it ‘the Bible’, and others declared it had changed their lives forever. (Cooper 2005: S38)”
Explanation of Example
Once the title of the book has been mentioned, the author assumes that the reader will be able to work out what she is referring to in her use of ‘it’ further on in the text.
Equally, she assumes the reader will know ‘which book’ she is referring to when she says ‘the book’s tough-love message’. If a reader is not sure what is being referred to, they will typically read back in the text to find the answer.
Cataphoric Reference
Definition
Cataphoric reference describes an item that refers forward to another word or phrase that is used later in the text.
Example
“It seems everyone’s read that self-help book: Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s He’s Just Not That Into You. (ibid.)”
Explanation of Example
In this case, the reader knows the item being referred to is yet to come in the text and reads forward to find the meaning of ‘that’.
Exophoric Reference
Definition
The exophoric reference looks outside the text to the situation in which the text occurs for the identity of the item being referred to.
Example
Customer: What kind of book would you say this is? Where would you put it on your bookshelves?
Explanation of Example
The following example illustrates this. Both speakers clearly know what book is being referred to in this conversation ( Monica’s Story ). ‘You’ and ‘your’ are also examples of exophoric references. Both speakers know, from outside the text, who these items are referring to.
Homophoric Reference
Definition
Homophoric reference is where the identity of the item can be retrieved by reference to cultural knowledge, in general, rather than the specific context of the text. An example of this, again from the review of He’s Just Not That Into You, follows:
Example
First in the US, then all over the world, women became converts to the book’s tough-love message. (ibid.)
This is different from the final use of ‘the’ in this sentence. To answer ‘which book’ we know it is the one being discussed in the text. We know, however, from our cultural knowledge ‘which’ the United States and ‘which’ world are being referred to in the text.
