Which term describes a device that refers back to something mentioned earlier in the text, such as the pronoun 'It' referring to 'the towel'?

• A. Reference
• B. Anaphoric reference
• C. Deictic
• D. Pronoun

Answer: (B)

Anaphoric reference is the mechanism where a term points back to something already mentioned in the discourse. In your example, the pronoun It refers to the towel introduced earlier, using the prior item as its antecedent to avoid repeating it. This keeps the text cohesive by linking back to what came before. This is different from a deictic reference, which relies on the speaker’s current context (here/there) rather than an explicit previous mention. While a pronoun is the actual word used, the question is about the relation it expresses, which is the anaphoric link to the earlier noun.