In grammar, an antecedent is generally the noun or noun phrase to which an anaphor refers in a coreference, however an antecedent also can be a clause, especially when the anaphor is a demonstrative. In these sentences, the antecedent is in bold and the anaphor in italics: For the rules of English grammar, see English grammar and Disputes in English grammar. ... In linguistics, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... Look up noun phrase in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. ... In linguistics, coreference is the phenomenon where two expressions in an utterance both refer to the same thing. ... In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ... In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. ... // Demonstratives are deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities a speaker refers to, and distinguishes those entities from others. ... In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. ...

• I met John at the party. He was telling me about his new friend.

In the above, the pronoun 'He' is referring to the noun 'John'.

A common stylistic problem in writing, often leading to ambiguity, is the use of a pronoun for which the antecedent is not clear, as in the following example:

• I met John at Mike's party. He told me about his new friend.Shut Up this is not right ni got an a F when on my paper it asked what a anticedent is

Did John tell the speaker about his own new friend? Did John tell the speaker about Mike's new friend? Did Mike tell the speaker about his own new friend? Or did Mike tell the speaker about John's new friend? Generally most competent speakers would agree that "he" refers to "John", this is normally explained in terms of salience, even still in ordinary speech, listeners are often confused by such sentences. Occasionally, the antecedent may be missing from the discourse, as when someone wonders out loud: "I wonder where I put it?", with no clear antecedent for the pronoun "it." Also the antecedent may not occur in the current discourse but instead refer to an object familiar to both speaker and listener, for example "the FBI." In semiotics, salience refers to the relative importance or prominence of a piece of a sign. ...

Antecedents are of particular importance in connection with relative pronouns; the pronoun usually opens the relative clause, but the antecedent is located in the main clause. A poprelative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. ... A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun. ...

• As I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn't there...

Sometimes the anaphor may not appear, but be implied by syntactic principles, this is called a zero anaphor. In linguistics, anaphora is an instance of an expression referring to another. ...

• Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water.

(In this sentence, no anaphor appears explicitly, but an implicit zero anaphor, coreferent with the main clause subject, is the subject of the verb "fetch".)

An antecedent may also be a clause as in this example In grammar, a clause is a word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly. ...

• "I guess he's enjoying himself."
• "Yes, that's right"

In the following example the antecedent is separated by the verb.

• A situation has arisen that calls for immediate action.

Different languages employ this to varying degrees. For example, in Arabic and Hebrew it is not permitted at all (the antecedent must always come right before the relative pronoun or conjunction or clause), in English it is used to avoid awkward constructions, and in German such separation is frequent due to the practice of shunting the verb to the end of the sentence. In Spanish, the antecedent often appears after the verb, preceding an adjective (dependent) clause (e.g., Busco UNA NOVIA que sea sensible.).

See also

References

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