A reference that points outside of the text but is understood in context is called what?

• A. Exophoric reference
• B. Anaphoric reference
• C. Cataphoric reference
• D. Deictic reference

Answer: (A)

The key idea is how the reference connects to something outside the written text. An exophoric reference points to an entity or situation that isn’t in the text itself but is understood from the real-world context or shared situation. For example, saying “That man over there” or “This tastes amazing” while pointing or judging from the surroundings relies on what everyone nearby knows about the scene, not on something already described in the page.

This differs from anaphoric references, which rely on something mentioned earlier in the text, and from cataphoric references, which look forward to something that will be introduced later. Deictic terms like here, there, this, or that involve location or time relative to the speaker, which also ties to context, but the explicit idea of pointing to something outside the text in a shared situation aligns most closely with exophoric reference.