Unit III. Reference

Key words:random, make up, meaningful, retrieve, identifiable, presupposed, keep track, exophoric, endophoric, anaphoric, cataphoric, point backwards, point forward, proximity, identity, similarity, indirect.

When we speak or write we very often want to make some connections with other things that we are saying or writing.

Every text has a structure. It is not just a random collection of sentences. The parts that make up the text are related in a meaningful way to each other. In order to understand the text, it is necessary to understand how the sentences are related. Words like “it”, “this”, “that”, “here’, “there”, etc. refer to other parts of the text.

Referencing cohesion functions to retrieve presupposed information in text and must be identifiable for it to be considered as cohesive. In written text, referencing indicates how the writer introduces participants and keeps track of them throughout the text.

There are two general types of reference: exophoric referencing, which refers to information from the immediate context of situation and endophoric referencing, which refers to information that can be “retrieved” from within the text.

Endophoric referencing can be divided into two types: anaphoric and cataphoric. Anaphoric refers to any reference that “points backwards” to previously mentioned information in text, when the information needed for the interpretation is in the preceding portion of the text. Cataphoric refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later in the text, when the information needed for the interpretation is to be found in the part of the text that follows.

Endophoric referencing can be of the following kinds :personal, demonstrative, and comparative. Personal reference keeps track of function through the speech situation using pronouns like “he, him ,she, her”, etc. and possessive determiners like “mine, yours, his, hers.

Demonstrative reference keeps track of information through location using proximity references like “this, these, that, those, here, there, then, and the”.

Comparative reference keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect references using adjectives like “same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more”, etc. and adverbs like “so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more”, etc.

Referring back

When we speak or write we often refer back to something that has already been mentioned or make a connection with it.

• pronouns

One common way of referring back to something is to use a personal pronoun such as “he”, “she”, “it” or “them”, or a possessive pronoun such as “mine” or “hers”.

Davis opened a door. “Here is your room. I’m afraid it’s a bit untidy.”He picked a dirty handkerchief off the floor and stuffed it in a drawer.

There are also other pronouns which can be used to refer back. These include such as “another” and “many” which have the same meaning as general determiners.

Programmes which tell the computer to do one thing rather than another.

• A quantifier or a cardinal number can also be used for these purposes.

The women were asked to leave.Some of them refused.

• Another common way of referring back to something is to use a specific determiner such as “the” or “its” in front of a noun.

A man and a woman were struggling up the dune.The man wore shorts, a T-shirt and basketball sneakers. The woman wore a print dress.

Some general determiners can also be used to refer back to something.

A dog was running around the yard. Soon another dog appeared.

A list of general determiners used to refer back to something: another, both, each, either, every, neither, other

Referring back in a specific way

• demonstratives referring to things

This and that and their plural forms these and those are used to refer back clearly to thing or fact that has just been mentioned. They can be used both as pronouns and determiners.

More and more money is being pumped into the educational system, and it is reasonable to assume this will continue.

This and that are not very often used as pronouns to refer to people. When they are used like this, they are only used in front of the verb “be”.

“It was here that one young prisoner was sold for a bag of corn,” said the old woman. “That was me”.

This and that are used sometimes to refer back to whole sentences and even the sections of the text, so all their cohesive uses are set out in the following section.

Later, computer systems were brought into play to draw up attack strategies; later yet, they found themselves riding along in aircraft, submarines, and tanks. All this had its beneficial aspects.

• There are some words such a sprevious, above, former, latter which are used to refer back to a sentence or a section of the text.

As explained in the previous section , the bottle needs only to be washed in cold water.

• things of this kind, things of that kind

When we want to refer generally to a whole class of things like the one that has been mentioned we can use the phrases “ things of this or that kind”. Alternatively we can say “ this or that kind of thing”.

We’ll need a special new terminal to incorporate customs facilities, immigration facilities, and things of that kind.

• adverbs of time, place, manner

In ancient times poetry was a real force in the world. Of course the world was different then.

• So and not

“So” is sometimes used in formal English as a substitute for a complement that has already been mentioned or implied. It is also used to substitute for a clause after “if” , when the action or situation you are talking about has already been mentioned.

They are widely inefficient and will remain so for some time to come.

Not is used to substitute for a negative clause, to imply the opposite situation to the one already mentioned.

You will probably have one of the two documents mentioned below. If not, you will have to buy one

• do so is used to mean “perform the action just mentioned”. The various forms of the verb “do” can be used. This structure is rather formal.

A signal which should have turned to red failed to do so.

• when we want to compare with something that has been already mentioned we can use such words as such, same, the same, opposite and reverse, comparable, matching, adjacent, conflicting, contradictory, analogous, different, separate, similar, etc.

Some 60% of the state’s electricity comes from burning imported oil, the highest use of such fuel in the country.

Referring forward

There are various ways of referring forward to things that are about to be mentioned. These ways often involve the nouns such as account, defense, proposal, disclosure, discussion..... and many others which are more commonly used when you are referring back to something.

• The pronouns this and these can be also used to refer forward to what you are about to say. They can be both pronouns and determiners. Note that these can only be a pronoun when it is used as a subject.

Well, you might not believe this but I don’t drink very much.

• We can also refer to what we are about to mention using the adjective following attributively.When following is used like this, it is used with nouns which refer to texts, ideas, and pieces of writing. Very occasionally, it is used with nouns which refer to actions and events.

After a while he received the following letter : “Dear Sir, The Undersecretary of State regrets that he is unable to reconsider your case...”.

• the adjective next can be used to refer forward with nouns which refer to pieces of writing.

In the next chapter we will examine this theory in detail.

• the word below is also used to refer forward to something you are about to mention. The word below is used after nouns which refer to texts and pieces of writing.

... the coming together of the Japanese and Chinese economic miracles.

PRACTICE

Exercise 1.Think over the following statements and say whether they are right or wrong:

• Every text is a random collection of sentences.

• The parts that make up the text are related in a meaningful way to each other.

• The main function of cohesion is to retrieve presupposed information in text.

• There are ten general types of reference.

• Endophoric referencing can be divided into two types: anaphoric and cataphoric.

• Anaphoric reference shows the information“points forward”.

• Cataphoric reference shows the information that “points backward”.

Exercise 2.Show which words in the following sentences refer us back and forward:

1. The keeper came loping softly up the lane with the dog padding at his heels, and we watched them through the hedge as they went by.

2. I held her very close. My cheek was against hers.

3. These soldiers had no doubt that the invasion was upon them. Many of them had already been involved in fighting.

4.....the Guatemalan earthquake which killed 24,000 people and injured 77,000.

5. “Thanks”, said Brody. He hung up, turned out the light in his office, and walked out to his car.

6. In 1973 he went on a caravan holiday. At the beginning of this holiday he began to experience pain in the chest.

7. Later, computer systems were brought into play to draw up attack strategies; later yet, they found themselves riding along in aircraft, submarines, and tanks. All this had its beneficial aspects.

8. He played rugby at school, had been in the army and had briefly been a professional footballer. That was thought to be to his favour when the job came up later.

9. “You are a new doctor, aren’t you? –That’s all right”.

10. “Were you worried about the disrespect for the law exhibited by your two heroes?” – “That’s a hard question to answer”.

11. I think we can now answer the question posed at the end of the previous chapter.

12. I have not been able to validate the above statement.

13. Keep supplies of rice and spaghetti. Also, to go with the above,Parmesan cheese and tins of tomatoes.

14.It used to be said that the oil exporting countries depended on the oil importing countries just as much as the latter depended on the former.

15.I could do one or two things – obey him or get my own protection. I chose the latter.

16.The Gallery must be given a full chapter or just a brief paragraph, and space forbids the former alternative.

17. Guy had studied classics and philosophy at Oxford and always felt a sort of lingering interest in the latter subject.

18.Most of uswould attach a great deal of importance to considerations of this kind.

19. I don’t see many advantagesin that kind of education.

20. All arts theaters have that kind of problem.

21. Both these countries want to reduce the production of these kinds of weapons.

22. There are specific regulations governing these types of machines.

23. Outsidersaren’t supposed to make those kinds of jokes.

24. Eventually with a groan of good nature he gave in. There was , as a matter of fact, even something pleasing to him in thus giving it.

25. More and more people will turn to cheques and credit cards for the majority of their purchases. Many people in the Western world already do the bulk of their purchasing in this way.

26. Undaunted by his first setbacks, perhaps stubbornly so, he lashed his mechanics to greater efforts.

27. Will that be enough?

28. If so, do not ask for more.

29. Most of those who signed the letter did so because of her involvement.

30. She asked him to wait while she considered. He did so.

31. British governments are perfectly capable of improving drinking water quality, and perhapsthey should voluntary have done so before now.

32. They lasted for hundreds of years. On a humantime scale, such a period seems an eternity.

33. To meet the demand there are many new agencies providing mainlyfemale cooks to cater for the boardrooms. One such agency, Mand N, has about a hundred upper class girls on its books.

34. It is not surprising that people are prepared to envisage radical alternatives. Many such have been proposed in the last few years.

35. He watched her climb into a compartment of the train and he chose the same one as to watch her more closely.

36. The same smells may produce depressionin others.

37. The Queen treated us very well. The Princess Royal was just the same.

38. He was stopped and sent back to get a ticket. On the return journey the same thing happened.

39.It was designed to impress , butprobablyhadthe opposite effect.

40.This time the positionis the reverse.

41. I once heard a police commissioner say that we would have to learn to live with crime. The opposite is true: we have to learn not to live with crime.

42. He has an excellent record of saying one thing and doing the opposite.

43. We have gained better health by exchanging fat for more efficient muscles. The reverse is also true.

44. West Germany, Denmark and Italy face declines in young people. Ireland is confronted with a contrasting problem.

45. I thought life was simply splendid. I had no reason to think otherwise.

46. This chapter will follow the same patternas the previous one.

47. These were the facts: on a warm February afternoon, Gregory Clark and a friend were cruising downWashington Boulevard in a Mustang.

48. On a blackboard these words were written: Reading,Writing, Arithmetic.

49. I draw the following conclusion: that natural childbirth and rooming-in should be available for all who want them.

50. [...] a box containing the following: a packet of tissues, two small sponges, two old handkerchiefs, and a clothes brush.

51. The overlap can be seen in the table below.

52. The report given below appeared in’ the Daily Mail’ on August 8 1985.

Exercise 3.Explain the meaning of the marked words:

Text A

The scientific study of memory began in the early 1870s when a German philosopher, Hermann Ebbinghaus, came up with the revolutionary idea that memory could be studied experimentally. In doing so he broke away from a 2000-year-old tradition that firmly assigned the study of memory to the philosopher rather than to the scientist. He argued that the philosophers had come up with a wide range of possible interpretations of memory but had produced no way of deciding which amongst these theories offered the best explanation of memory. He aimed to collect objective experimental evidence of the way in which memory worked in the hope that this would allow him to choose between the various theories.

Text B

These theories all stem from some underlying assumptions about people. To a large extent unproven, they tend to represent the dominant mood or climate of opinion at that time. Schein has classified them as follows, and it is interesting to note that the categories follow each other in a sort of historical procession, starting from the time of the industrial revolution.

Exercise 4.Define the words which show reference in the following texts and explain their meaning:

Text A

Every organization, as soon as it gets to any size (perhaps 1,000 people), begins to feel a need to systematize its management of human assets. Perhaps the pay scales have got way out of line, with apparently similar-level jobs paying very different amounts; perhaps there is a feeling that there are a lot of neglected skills in the organization that other departments could utilize if they were aware that they existed. Perhaps individuals have complained that they don't know where they stand or what their future is; perhaps the unions have requested standardized benefits and procedures. Whatever the historical origins, some kind of central organization, normally named a personnel department, is formed to put some system into the haphazardry. The systems that they adopt are often modelled on the world of production, because that is the world with the best potential for order and system.

Text B

We all tend to complain about our memories. Despite the elegance of the human memory system, it is not infallible, and we have to learn to live with its fallibility. It seems to be socially much more acceptable to complain of a poor memory, and it is somehow much more acceptable to blame a social lapse on 'a terrible memory', than to attribute it to stupidity or insensitivity. But how much do we know about our own memories? Obviously we need to remember our memory lapses in order to know just how bad our memories are. Indeed one of the most amnesic patients I have ever tested was a lady suffering from Korsakoff's syndrome, memory loss following chronic alcoholism. The test involved presenting her with lists of words; after each list she would comment with surprise on her inability to recall the words, saying: “I pride myself on my memory! She appeared to have forgotten just how bad her memory was”.