Natural Language Processing · TEE · mocks

Q1D · Anaphora, cataphora and coreference

Timed practice · Solved re-exam · February 2026

TEE · actual previous paper · 100 marks · 180 minutes

Question. Differentiate between cataphora and anaphora in terms of direction of reference. How coreference resolution is different from anaphora reference? [5 marks]

Answer

Anaphora points backward to an expression or information introduced earlier. Cataphora points forward to an expression introduced later.

Relation	Example	Direction
Anaphora	“Riya arrived. She smiled.” She refers to the earlier Riya.	Backward
Cataphora	“Before she spoke, Riya checked the microphone.” She refers to the later Riya.	Forward

Coreference means two or more expressions refer to the same entity. Coreference resolution groups such expressions, regardless of whether they are names, descriptions or pronouns and regardless of which is mentioned first.

For “Dr Sen arrived. The surgeon smiled. She waved,” {Dr Sen, the surgeon, She} is a coreference cluster. The latter two mentions are also backward-looking references. Coreference is an identity relation; anaphora describes a dependency on prior discourse and is not always identity. For example, “I bought a house. The roof leaks” contains a bridging reference: the roof depends on the house for interpretation, but roof and house are not the same entity.

Yaad rakho: Ana = pehle ki taraf; cata = aage ki taraf; coreference = same entity.