Reference Tracking

In SFL-based discourse analysis, *reference* refers to how writers or speakers introduce participants (i.e., people, places, things that act or are "talked about" in a text) and then tracks them as the text unfolds (cf. Eggins, *Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics*, 33). There are two basic categories of reference:

- **presenting**: reference that introduces a participant as "new" to the text (or section of text); e.g., καὶ συνήχθησαν **πολλοὶ** ὥστε μηκέτι χωρεῖν μηδὲ τὰ πρὸς τὴν θύραν (*And **many [people]** were gathered together so that there was no longer space not even toward the door* [Mark 2:2])
- **presuming**: reference that presumes a participant has already been introduced in the text (or section of text); e.g., τί **οὗτος** οὕτως λαλεῖ; (*Why does **this** [person] speak in this manner?* [Mar 2:7])

Presumed references may be retrievable from three possible contexts: from the context of culture, from the context of situation, and from within the text itself. References to things in the context of culture, called **homophoric references**, are to things everyone sharing a culture knows about because they’re part of that culture. These may be references to more broadly known things like ἥλιος, σελήνη, and ἀστέρες (*sun*, *moon*, and *stars*); or they may be references to things shared by members of a particular subculture such as τὸ ἱερόν (*the temple*).

**Exophoric references** are those that retrieve from a shared immediate context of situation. These are most easily retrievable in spoken conversations. For example, when I’m carrying in groceries for my wife and she says, "Set that right there." I know the demonstrative *that* refers to the sack of groceries I’m carrying and *right there* refers to a specific space on the counter at which she points. These can be more challenging to retrieve in written colloquy because the intended readers may not have been part of the context of situation in which the text was instantiated. So, for example, John 2:6 says ἦσαν δὲ **ἐκεῖ** λίθιναι ὑδρίαι ἓξ (*Now, six stone jars were **there** . . .). A precise meaning of *there* is not retrievable by the reader.

Presumed references may be retrievable from within the text itself. These are called **endophoric references**. In most texts, it’s typical for a new participant to be introduced into the colloquy (presenting reference) and then referred to throughout the remaining colloquy pronominally (i.e., with pronouns). So, for example, in Mark 2:6 τινες τῶν γραμματέων (*some of the scribes*) are presented in the text, and at the end of the verse they are referenced pronominally with αὐτῶν in καρδίας αὐτῶν (the hearts of *them* or *their* hearts).

Reference tracking in biblical Greek is a bit more tedious (but lots more fun!) than in English because one also has to account for verbal person reference. Greek verbs are monolectic; language users do not have to state explicitly a subject because person is "built in" to the verb. Take for example Mark 2:3: καὶ ἔρχονται φέροντες πρὸς αὐτὸν παραλυτικὸν αἰρόμενον ὑπὸ τεσσάρων (*Then they came bringing to him a paralytic being carried by four*). There are a number of interesting things about this clause, but for the point at hand, consider the verb ἔρχονται. There is no explicit subject given in the clause, but because of the personal ending –νται, which signals 3rd person plural, I knew I could gloss it *they came*. "They" in this instance apparently refers cataphorically (i.e., it looks ahead) to the four people (τεσσάρων) presented at the end of the clause.

These are the basic means by which language users introduce participants into text and then track them. In an upcoming post, I’ll write about reference chains that develop across texts and, in fact, help texts "hang together" as texts. These chains are crucial for a text’s cohesion.