Antecedent (grammar)
The antecedent (also: antecedent, plural: antecedent) is the reference object of an anaphor in grammar .
- Today the girl wore his new pants for the first time . Unfortunately dropped it back and it tore.
- Today [the girl] i wore [ his new pants] for the first time j . Unfortunately [it] i fell and [she] j tore apart.
In sentence (1), the antecedents are written in bold and the anaphors are underlined. Sentence (2) represents a notation that is common in linguistics . The index, marked by i or j, shows which anaphora (here personal pronouns ) refers to which antecedent: It refers to the girl and she to her new pants .
The dissolution of the anaphora, i.e. the identification of the antecedent belonging to the anaphor, is referred to as anaphernous resolution or also as anaphernous resolution. This can be complicated in some cases and demand a lot from the reader. Therefore , personal pronouns of the third person are avoided in the easy language , a language variety of German, which reduces the linguistic complexity of German and thus makes texts easier to read. Antecedents no longer have to be found.