Discourse analysis and grammar

EXOPHORIC REFERENCES (Looking outward-outside the text)

• The referent is not in the immediate context but is assumed by speaker/writer to be part of a shared world, in terms of knowledge and experience.
• Examples of exophora can be words like I, mine, you, we, which point to things (the speakers or the speakers’ possessions) in the environment in which a text occurs.

ENDOPhORIC REFERENCES

• References to elements in the text are called Endophoric references.
• Endophoric referencing can be divided into two areas:
• Anaphoric
• Cataphoric

ANAPHORIC (backward references)

• ANAPHORIC (backward references)
• Refers to any reference that “points backward” to previously mentioned information in text. Usually items such: as he/ she or them, it this, can be decoded without major difficulty.
• E.g. Jane likes ice cream but Anne can’t eat it.
• The teacher asked Said to read so he read.
• CATAPHORIC (forward references)
• Refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later in the text.
• E.g. When I met her, Sarah looked ill.
• Here is the news. The Prime Minister…..