cataphor

Cataphor is a linguistic phenomenon in which a word or phrase refers forward to another element that is introduced later in the discourse. This contrasts with anaphor, where the referring expression points back to an antecedent earlier in the text. Cataphora is commonly realized with pronouns or demonstratives and serves to manage information flow by delaying the explicit identification of the antecedent.

Example: "Before he spoke, John entered." The pronoun he refers forward to John, which appears later in the sentence. Another example: "This will be difficult, the project has many moving parts." Here the determiner This points forward to the forthcoming description of the project and its parts. Cataphora can also involve definite descriptions or demonstratives that signal forthcoming content rather than referring to something already mentioned.

Processing and distribution: Cataphora requires the reader or listener to anticipate the eventual antecedent, which can impose an additional processing load, especially when the antecedent is a proper name or a complex description. The phenomenon is found across languages, though its frequency and preferred realizations vary. In discourse, cataphora often serves to structure information, create suspense, or draw attention to forthcoming details before naming them.

Related concepts include anaphora and deixis; cataphora is one of several strategies by which speakers manage referents over the course of discourse. Its use is typically determined by stylistic choice, discourse context, and syntactic constraints in the language.