In
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, an antecedent is an expression (word, phrase, clause, sentence, etc.) that gives its meaning to a
proform
In linguistics, a pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid rep ...
(pronoun, pro-verb, pro-adverb, etc.). A proform takes its meaning
from its antecedent; e.g., "John arrived late because traffic held him up." The pronoun ''him'' refers to and takes its meaning from ''John'', so ''John'' is the antecedent of ''him''. Proforms usually follow their antecedents, but sometimes they precede them, in which case one is, technically, dealing with postcedents instead of antecedents. The prefix ''ante-'' means "before" or "in front of", and ''post-'' means "after" or "behind". The term ''antecedent'' stems from traditional grammar. The linguistic term that is closely related to ''antecedent'' and ''proform'' is ''
anaphora''. Theories of syntax explore the distinction between antecedents and postcedents in terms of
binding.
Examples
Almost any
syntactic category A syntactic category is a syntactic unit that theories of syntax assume. Word classes, largely corresponding to traditional parts of speech (e.g. noun, verb, preposition, etc.), are syntactic categories. In phrase structure grammars, the ''phrasal c ...
can serve as the antecedent to a proform. The following examples illustrate a range of proforms and their antecedents. The proforms are in bold, and their antecedents are underlined
::a.
Willy said he likes chocolate.
- Noun as antecedent
::b.
My eccentric uncle likes chocolate. He tells everyone to buy him chocolate.
- Noun phrase as antecedent
::c. Larry was
helpful, and so was Kim.
- Adjective as antecedent
::d. He arrived
in the afternoon, when nobody was home.
- Prepositional phrase as antecedent
::e. Thomas plays soccer
in the park. The kids all congregate there.
- Prepositional phrase as antecedent
::f. Our helpers did it
very carefully, and we did it like that as well.
- Adverb phrase as antecedent
::g. Fred
works hard, but Tom does not do the same.
- Verb phrase as antecedent
::h.
Susan lies all the time, which everybody knows about.
- Entire clause as antecedent
::i.
Our politicians have been pandering again. This demotivates the voters.
- Entire sentence as antecedent
::j. Rob is
a dentist and, as such, he fixes teeth.
- Noun phrase as antecedent
::k.
Someone called
who offered to help. She was really friendly.
- Discontinuous word combination as antecedent
::l.
The paragraph has in fact been
checked by Sam, but Susan won't do it.
- Discontinuous word combination as antecedent
This list of proforms and the types of antecedents that they take is by no means exhaustive, but rather it is intended to merely deliver an impression of the breadth of expressions that can function as proforms and antecedents. While the stereotypical proform is a pronoun and the stereotypical antecedent a noun or noun phrase, these examples demonstrate that most any syntactic category can in fact serve as an antecedent to a proform, whereby the proforms themselves are a diverse bunch. The last two examples are particularly interesting, because they show that some proforms can even take discontinuous word combinations as antecedents, i.e. the antecedents are
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
s. A particularly frequent type of proform occurs in
relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s. Many relative clauses contain a relative pronoun, and these relative pronouns have an antecedent. Sentences d and h above contain relative clauses; the proforms ''when'' and ''which'' are relative proforms.
Uncertain antecedents
In some cases, the wording could have an uncertain antecedent, where the antecedent of a pronoun is not clear because two or more prior nouns or phrases could match the count, gender, or logic as a prior reference.
In such cases, scholars have recommended to rewrite the sentence structure to be more specific,
[ or repeat the words of the antecedent rather than use only a pronoun phrase, as a technique to resolve the uncertain antecedent.
For example, consider the sentence, "There was a doll inside the box, which was made of clay" where the word "which" could refer to either the box or the doll. To improve, the sentence could be reworded as: "Inside the box, there was a doll which was made of clay" or, "Inside the box, there was a doll made of clay" or, "There was a girl doll inside the box, and she was made of clay" (or similar wording).
Antecedents may also be unclear when they occur far from the noun or phrase they refer to. ]Bryan Garner
Bryan Andrew Garner (born 1958) is an American lawyer, lexicographer, and teacher who has written more than two dozen books about English usage and style such as ''Garner's Modern English Usage'' for a general audience, and others for legal profe ...
calls these, "remote relatives", and gives this example from the New York Times:
and points out that "'' at'' modifies ''messages'' — 7 words and 3 nouns before." He also give examples for ''in which'', ''who'', and ''whose''.
Postcedents
The ''ante-'' in ''antecedent'' means 'before, in front of'. Thus when a proform precedes its antecedent, the antecedent is technically not an antecedent, but rather it is a postcedent, ''post-'' meaning 'after, behind'. The following examples illustrate postcedents:
::a. When it is ready, I'll have a cup of coffee. - Noun as postcedent
::b. In her bed, my friend spends the entire morning. - Noun phrase as postcedent
::c. It bothered me that she did not call. - Clause as postcedent, example of ''it''- extraposition
::d. Two violinists were there, at the party. - Prepositional phrase as postcedent
::e. Sam tries to work then, when it is raining. - Clause as postcedent
Postcedents are rare compared to antecedents, and in practice, the distinction between antecedents and postcedents is often ignored, the term ''antecedent'' being used to denote both. This practice is a source of confusion and some have therefore denounced the term ''antecedent'' outright because of this confusion.[For an example of a linguist who rejects the term antecedent because of the confusion it generates (due to the failure to distinguish between antecedents and postcedents), see Tesnière (1969:86f.).]
Implied antecedents
Some proforms lack a linguistic antecedent (or postcedent). In such cases, the antecedent is implied in the given discourse environment or from general knowledge of the world. For instance, the first person pronouns ''I'', ''me'', ''we'', and ''us'' and second person pronoun ''you'' are proforms that usually lack a linguistic antecedent. However, their antecedents are present in the discourse context as the speaker and the listener. Pleonastic proforms also lack a linguistic antecedent, e.g. ''It is raining'', where the pronoun ''it'' is semantically empty and cannot be viewed as referring to anything specific in the discourse world. Definite proforms such as ''they'' and ''you'' also have an indefinite use, which means they denote some person or people in general, e.g. ''They will get you for that'', and therefore cannot be construed as taking a linguistic antecedent.
See also
* Binding — Association of anaphoric elements
*
Notes
References
* Carnie, A. 2013. ''Syntax: A generative introduction''. 3rd edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
* Crystal, D. 1997. ''A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics''. 4th edition. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
* Radford, A. 2004. ''English syntax: An introduction''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Tesnière, L. 1969. ''Éléments de syntaxe structurale'', 2nd edition. Klincksieck, Paris.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antecedent (Grammar)
Semantics
Syntactic relationships
Syntax