Cataphoric is another type of coreferential relationship. Like anaphora, cataphora involves a cohesive tie between two concepts but, in cataphoric relationships, the reference term precedes the referent or antecedent.
Gutwinski (1976 :67) says :
Cataphoric - an item refers to something coming along in the text.
Fine (1978 :251) says :
Cataphoric bonds are relations in a text that direct the hearer to coming elements of the
text for the information needed to interpret an element.
Cataphora may be seen as a complement to anaphora. While anaphora refers back and is cohesive, cataphora refers forward and is non-cohesive.
For example :
(35) 'Wena' a bua le Ikemefuna, 'a ga lo leme makwejama kwa o tswana gone ?'
(Monyaise, 1991 :24) 'And you, ' he said to Ikemefuna,
do you not grow yams where you come from ?' (Achebe, 1986 :24)
The referent item wena ‘you’ which is an emphatic pronoun in this case, is used cataphorically as it precedes the antecedent Ikemefuna. In this example, as a rte occurrence, the cataphoric item is cohesive.
3.4 PRONOUNS
Pronouns are independent words and according to Cole (1979: 128), they may stand along as subjects or objects in a sentence but sometimes may precede a noun or other pronoun. Pronouns provide a point of contact or linkage wit earlier discourse. They can therefore be used anaphorically or cataphorically in a text.
According to Jocobsen (1977: 419) statement is not always true. It is noticeable in example (34) that the pronoun ena ‘he’ does no appear within the same sentence as the antecedent Amalinze but appears within the same paragraph. What is true about the statement is that an antecedent has to appear first in the text so that when the pronoun takes its position, i.e. the position of the referent, the reader should still be in a position to follow what is being communicated. This shows that pronouns provide a point of contact or linkage with earlier discourse, as already mentioned.
Halliday (1994: 312-316) distinguishes three subtypes i.e. personal, demonstrative and comparative pronouns. Cole (1979: 127) distinguishes three main type so pronouns in Tswana as absolute, demonstrative and qualificative. The following demonstrates Cole’s pronoun.
(i) Absolute pronouns e.g Singular Plural 1st person nna rona
2nd person wena lona 3rd person sone tsone
(ii) Demonstrative pronouns e.g this or these
Singular Plural
(Class 7) se (Class 8) tse
that or those
seo tseo
this here
seno tseno
(iii) Qualificative pronouns -: These are sub-divided by Cole # (1979: 135) into 5 categories namely, relative,
adjectival, enumerative, quantitative and possessive qualificative pronouns.
For the purpose of this chapter we shall consider Halliday’s classification, namely emphatic pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and the comparative pronouns.
3.4.1 Emphatic pronouns
Emphatic pronouns are words used to refer to the speaker “I” and ‘me’, the person spoken to ‘you’ and the other persons and things whose referents are presumed to be clear from the context ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘she’, ‘her’ and ‘it’.
Gutwinski (1976: 68) indicates that only the third person pronouns and their inflectional forms ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘they’ may function anaphorically while the first and second person pronouns normally do not function anaphorically although there are contexts in which they could be considered anaphoric.
(36) Bana le bone ba kgabisiwa, bogolo moriri o
O neng o beotswe ka ditemana
(Monyaise, 1991: 28)
‘The children were also decorated, especially their hair, which was shaved in beautiful patterns’.
(Achebe, 1986: 27)
Bone ‘they’ third person in (36) is a pronoun used anaphorically to refer to the antecedent bana ‘children’.
3.4.2 Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative reference items, according to Halliday 91994: 313) include ‘this’ and
‘that’ and their plural forms ‘these’ and ‘those’, the definite article ‘the’, and adverbs of time and place ‘here’, ‘now’, ‘there’ and ‘then’. Demonstratives may also function anaphorically or exophorically. (NB. Articles like the definite ‘the’ and the infinite ’a’ do not occur in Tswana). In Chapter 2, (2.2) it has been stated that Tswana has three basic spatial demonstratives. For instance Class 10 tse ‘closer to the speaker that to the hearer’, tseo ‘further away from the speaker but closer to the hearer’ and tsele which is
‘distant form both the speaker and the hearer’.
Halliday (1994: 313) says:
The basic sense of ‘this’ and ‘that’ is one of proximity; this refers to something as being
‘near’, that refers to something as being ‘not near’.
(37) Ke mang yo o bolaileng setlhare seno?
(Monyaise, 1991: 28)
‘Who killed this tree?’
(Achebe, 1986: 27)
Seno ‘this’ in (37) shows that the speaker is next to the tree he is referring to. It is also used anaphorically as it points backwards to the tree, i.e. setlhare sefe? Seno ‘which tree? This’, therefore cohesion is clearly indicated. An exophoric function according to Gutwinski (1976: 69) means an item refers to a situation outside of language. An exophoric relation can also be accompanied by gestures.
The following example illustrates what is implied above.
(37) Ke bua ka mosadi yo, ayo o ratang go seba.
‘I am talking about this woman who likes gossiping’.
The relation is existence in example (38) above is that of exophora. The speaker and the addressee are both outside the language and the person referred to is neither within sight nor reach.
Gutwinski discussed other phoric relations, e.g.
Paraphoric – an item refers to something in another text, e.g. another work of art expected to be knows and related to the text at hand in any special way.
(Gutwinski, 1976: 67)
and
Homophoric – an item referring to one’s general knowledge.
The reference is cultural.
(Gutwinski, 1976: 68)