Author Topic: A question  (Read 2337 times)

pat

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A question
« on: June 27, 2014, 07:29:58 PM »
Here's a question for you grammar experts.

Take the two following sentences:

When Mary has a day off she goes shopping.
When she has a day off Mary goes shopping.

Both sentences refer to Mary using both a noun and a pronoun but in the first sentence the noun is used first and vice versa in the second sentence. There's a word that describes a noun when it's used before a pronoun and another for when it's used after the pronoun. What are the words?

(It's not a quiz - I can't remember what the words are.)

Ozzyjack

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Re: A question
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2014, 08:58:21 PM »
I am definitely not an expert on grammar but I think the terms you are looking for are antecedent and reflexive.
Regards, Jack

mkenuk

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Re: A question
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2014, 10:54:29 PM »
Fowler (Modern English Usage) has the terms anaphora and cataphora.

 He quotes a sentence 'After his discovery of New Zealand, Captain Cook went on to South Sea islands' as cataphoric

I don't know who invents these terms - I'd certainly challenge them if they came up in a Chi game!! ;D

MK




pat

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Re: A question
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2014, 12:32:20 AM »
Thanks for trying, Ozzy, but MK has come up with the words I was looking for. Thanks, Mike. Did you know them or did you take the trouble to look for them?

mkenuk

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Re: A question
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2014, 02:05:30 AM »
They're certainly not part of my current active vocabulary, Pat, although I may have encountered them on my  Eng. Lang. course, many years ago.

It isn't really a grammar question, since both of your sentences are grammatically correct, more a question of style and usage. Look up 'pronouns' in Fowler, and hey, presto?

Always a pleasure!

MK