A phoric relation is a syntagmatic relation between two referential expressions. In the prototypicaL case, the following conditions obtain:

• The two expressions are coreferential.
• One of the two expressions, the antecedent, may identify the referent by any of the canonical reference anchors. The other expression, the resumptive, identifies it by virtue of its syntagmatic relation to the antecedent.

illustrates the prototypical configuration.

The resumptive element may be lexical (#a) or a pro-form (#b).

The first of the two definitory conditions may be eased. In , the resumptive one in the second clause is phoric on its antecedent a set of grammars, but instead of being coreferential with it, it only designates an element of the set designated by its antecedent.

Excluding exophoric relations, remaining phoric relations are endophoric. Their main subdivision is between textual phora, which obtains at textual levels transcending the sentence (, ), and syntactic phora, which obtains inside the sentence ().

In contrast with textual phora, syntactic phora is a phoric relation subject to rules of syntax, thus one inside a sentence. Intraclausal syntactic phora is phora inside the clause. In , the expressions moi, je and the person coded in the conjugation of the copula are coreferential. The syntagmatic relation between the first and the second, as well as between the second and the third, is syntactic phora – in this case, agreement. The first is intrasentential, the second intraclausal.