reference and substitution

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jiang

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Dear teachers,

The following is the explanation to ''reference'' and ''substitution'' from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Referencing
There are two referential devices that can create cohesion:
Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition. Some examples: replacing ''the taxi driver'' with the pronoun ''he'' or ''two girls'' with ''they''. Another example can be found in formulas such as ''as stated previously'' or ''the aforementioned''.
Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora: a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse. Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified. For example: ''Here he comes, our award-winning host... it's John Doe!'' Cataphoric references can also be found in written text, for example ''see page 10''.

A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but is substituted for another, more general word. For example, ''Which ice-cream would you like?'' – ''I would like the pink one'' where ''one'' is used instead of repeating ''ice-cream.'' This works in a similar way to pronouns, which replace the noun. For example, 'Ice-cream' is a noun, and its pronoun could be 'It'. 'I dropped the ice-cream because it was dirty'. – Replacing the noun for a pronoun. ''I dropped the green ice-cream. It was the only one I had'. – the second sentence contains the pronoun (It), and the substitution (one).

I found one thing in common: pronoun can be used in both ''referencing'' and ''substitution''.

Could you please kindly explain how to distinguish 'referencing' from 'substitution' ? Why the replacing of "taxi driver" with "he"is referencing while the replacing of "ice-cream" with "it" is substitution?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Have a nice weekend.

Jiang
 

5jj

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The pronoun takes the place of a repeated noun (substitution); it refers back, or forward, to the noun (reference).
 

jiang

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Hi 5jj,

Thank you very much for your explanation. But this is still difficult to understand.

The following example is from the article I was reading.

Core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish. These are red ones, but they are not so delicious.

According to the explanation: them, these and they are referencing while ones are substitution. I don't know why them, these and they are not subsitution.
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Could you please kindly explain it to me?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang
 
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5jj

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It is not a case of 'either/or'; pronouns both reference and substitute.
 
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