Anaforát

Anaforát, or anaphora, is a linguistic phenomenon in which a word or expression refers back to another element introduced earlier in the discourse. The element that is referred to is the antecedent, and the referring item is the anaphor. This mechanism helps avoid repetition and supports coherence across sentences and clauses.

Common anaphors include pronouns such as he, she, it, and definite noun phrases like the latter. Reflexive pronouns such as myself and themselves are also treated as a subtype of anaphors. Example: "Maria said she would come." Here "she" is an anaphor referring to Maria. Another example: "The book was on the table; it was open." Here "it" refers to "the book."

Anaphora resolution is the process of identifying the antecedent of an anaphor, a central task in linguistics and natural language processing. Resolution relies on syntactic structure, semantic plausibility, and discourse context, and may involve linking across sentences and long-distance references.

Across languages, there is typological variation. Some languages permit zero anaphora, where the antecedent is implicit, whereas others require explicit forms. The study of anaphora intersects with binding theory in syntax and with coreference in computational linguistics, and it remains a central aspect of text understanding and generation.