A grammatical term for when a pronoun or other word refers forward to a later word in the text. It literally means 'carrying down' because it carries reference forward in the sentence.
From Greek 'kata' (down, according to) + 'phoros' (bearing, carrying), meaning 'carrying down.' In linguistics, it describes carrying reference downward or forward through a text to a later element. The term was adopted into English linguistic terminology in the 20th century.
Cataphora and anaphora are directional opposites - anaphora 'carries back' to repeat earlier words, while cataphora 'carries down' to reference later ones! Both show how language itself can 'carry' meaning across different parts of a text, like invisible threads connecting words.
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