Anaphora is a textual relation between two expressions, called the antecedent and the anaphor, such that the interpretation of the anaphor depends on the interpretation of the antecedent. In the prototypical case, the following conditions obtain:

• Both the antecedent and the anaphor are referring expressions.
• After occurrence of the antecedent, a certain referent is in the universe of discourse.
• The anaphor refers to this referent.

In , this is the antecedent, 't is the anaphor.

The anaphor is coreferential with the antecedent. How the antecedent gets its referent – in the present case, from the speech situation – is immaterial for the working of anaphora. Thus, for the construal of the reference of an anaphor, it is necessary both to identify its antecedent and to know the reference of the latter.

Beside the prototypical case, there are various other textual configurations coming under the general concept of anaphora. In , the antecedent is a fellow, the anaphor is one. Here, the antecedent and the anaphor are not coreferential.

• If the antecedent and the anaphor are coreferential – as in – it is identity-of-reference anaphora.
• If the antecedent refers to an element or subset of a set and the anaphor refers to a distinct element or subset of the same set – as in – it is identity-of-sense anaphora.

Identity-of-sense anaphora has occasionally been called lexical anaphora. However, this term is now used for an anaphor which is not a pronoun – as in – but a lexical expression. In , one William Shakespeare is the antecedent, this author is the anaphor.