What is anaphora

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What is anaphora
The use of a linguistic unit, such as a pronoun,
to refer back to another unit, as the use of her
to refer to Anne in the sentence Anne asked
Edward to pass her the salt. Anaphora represents
the relation between a proform (called an
anaphor) and another term (called an
"antecedent"), when the interpretation of the
anaphor is in a certain way determined by the
interpretation of the antecedent. Barbara Lust,
Introduction to Studies in the Acquisition of
Anaphora, D. Reidel, 1986
From Dan Cristea Al.I.Cuza University of
Iasi Faculty of Computer Science
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An example
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks
were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin
nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape
the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass
doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly
enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from
entering along with him. Orwell, 1984
anaphor
antecedent
anaphor
antecedent
From Dan Cristea Al.I.Cuza University of
Iasi Faculty of Computer Science
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What is cataphora The use of a linguistic unit,
such as a pronoun, to refer ahead to another
unit, for example, the use of him to refer to
John in the sentence Near him, John saw a snake.
Cataphora is the coreference of one expression
with another expression which follows it. The
following expression provides the information
necessary for interpretation of the preceding
one.  
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An example
In the following sentence, the relationship of
one to a towel is an example of cataphora If
you need one, theres a towel in the top drawer.