anaphorically

Anaphorically is an adverb used primarily in linguistics to describe the manner in which a linguistic expression derives its interpretation from another expression previously introduced in the discourse. The underlying relation is known as anaphora: an expression is an anaphor if its reference depends on an antecedent, usually a noun phrase or pronoun that appeared earlier in the text or conversation.

Examples include: "The committee approved the proposal. It was praised by the chair." Here "It" is an anaphor linked to "the proposal." Anaphoric reference contributes to coherence by avoiding repetition. The antecedent need not be immediately adjacent, and resolution may involve gender, number, and discourse context. There are also forms of anaphora such as definite descriptions ("the former"), ellipses, and zero pronouns in pro-drop languages.

Anaphoric use is contrasted with cataphora, in which a referential expression points forward to something mentioned later ("If you need it, call me"—"it" refers to something introduced after); or with deictic references that depend on the speaker's frame of reference, such as this, that.

In linguistics and related fields such as computational linguistics, anaphorically is used to discuss coreference, binding theory, and discourse representation. The adverb is relatively niche and often replaced by phrases like "anaphorically linked" or "anaphorically referenced" in more general writing.