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pronouns ('it', 'he', 'her', 'they') are examples of subsequent reference to already introduced
referents, generally known as anaphoric reference, or laphora. In technical terms, the second
or subsequent expression is the anaphor and the initial expression is the antecedent.
It is tempting to think of anaphoric reference as a process of continuing to identify
exactly the same entity as denoted by the antecedent. In many cases, that assumption makes
little difference to the interpretation, but in those cases where some change or effect is
described, the anaphoric reference must be interpreted differently. In example [12.], from a
recipe, the initial referring expression 'six potatoes' identifies something different from the
anaphoric pronoun 'them' which must be interpreted as 'the six peeled and sliced potatoes'.

[ 12.] Peel and slice six potatoes. Put them in cold salted water.

There is also a reversal of the antecedent-anaphor pattern some-times found at the
beginning of stories, as in example [13].

[13] I turned the corner and almost stepped on it. There was a
large snake in the middle of the path.
Note that the pronoun 'it' is used first and is difficult to interpret until the full noun phrase
is presented in the next line. This pat-tern is technically known as cataphora, and is much less
common than anaphora.
There is a range of expressions which are used for anaphoric reference in English. The
most typical forms are pronouns, such as 'it' in [14a.], but definite noun phrases are also used,
for example, 'the slices' in [14b.].
[14] a. Peel an onion and slice it.
b. Drop the slices into hot oil.
c. Cook for three minutes.
When the interpretation requires us to identify an entity, as in 'Cook (?) for three
minutes', in [І4c.], and no linguistic expression is present, it is called zero anaphora, or
ellipsis. The use of zero anaphora as a means of maintaining reference clearly creates an
expectation that the listener will be able to infer who or what the speaker intends to identify. It is
also another obvious case of more being communicated than is said.
[15] a. I just rented a house. The kitchen is really big.
b. We had Chardonnay with dinner. The wine was the best
part.
c. The bus came on time, but he didn't stop.
Making sense of [15a.] requires an inference (i.e if x is a house, then x has a kitchen) to
make the anaphoric connection. Such inferences depend on assumed knowledge which, as in
[15b.], may be much more specific (i.e. Chardonnay is a kind of wine). In addition, the inference
can be considered so automatic for some speakers (for example, a bus has a driver), that they
can go straight to a pronoun for anaphoric reference, as in [isc.]. In this example, note that the
antecedent ('the bus') and the anaphor ('he') are not in grammatical agreement (i.e. normally a
bus would be 'it'). As pointed out already, successful reference does not depend on some
strictly literal, or grammatically 'correct', relationship between the properties of the referent and
the refer-ring expression chosen. The word 'sandwich' can identify a per-son and the pronoun
'he' can be an anaphor for a thing. The key to making sense of reference is that pragmatic
process whereby speakers select linguistic expressions with the intention of identi-fying certain