cataphor
noun [ C ] language specialized uk/ˈkæt.əˌfɔːr/ us/ˈkæt̬.əˌfɔːr/
指后照应词（内容由下文加以说明）
a word that refers to a word used later in a text and replaces it, for example "he" in the sentence "When he saw me, Joe smiled."
In the following sentence, the pronoun "she" (the cataphor) appears earlier than the noun "Kate" that it refers to. 在下面的句子中，代词“she（她）”这个指后照应词出现在它所代指的名词“Kate（凯特）”之前。
Compare: anaphor
- More examples
- The meaning of the cataphor is determined or specified by the later expression.
- In language processing, it appears that the same mechanism serves a central regulatory function in processing anaphors, cataphors, and metaphors.
- Cataphors are ambiguous words signalling a term that shows up later in the text.
- Some researchers propose that cataphors trigger an active search during incremental processing.