In
linguistics,
cataphora (; from
Greek, ,
kataphora, “a downward motion” from ,
kata, “downwards” and ,
phero, “I carry”) is the use of an expression or word that
co-refers with a later, more specific, expression in the discourse. The preceding expression, whose meaning is determined or specified by the later expression, may be called a
cataphor. Cataphora is a type of
anaphora (and cataphors are a type of anaphors), although the terms
anaphora and
anaphor are sometimes used in a stricter sense, denoting only cases where the order of the expressions is the reverse of that found in cataphora.