Once you know to look for them…

…you can see cataphora everywhere!

Cataphor (plural: cataphora) is a grammatical term describing a word or phrase that refers to something that is identified later in the sentence. For example, in the sentence:

“If you want them, there are cookies in the kitchen”

“them” is a cataphor – you don’t know what “them” refers to until “cookies” comes along later in the sentence.

The significance of an item of information is often not apparent until further information is revealed at a later time. The name Cataphora neatly captures our specialty – making sense of potentially cryptic information by putting it into its proper context.