Jesse Drone

An antecedent is something that came before and had a part in causing or influencing a later thing. Our ancestors are examples of antecedents. They came before us and had a part in causing us and influencing us.  Other antecedents are events that led to other events, or ideas that gave rise to other ideas.

In grammar, an antecedent is a noun or name that tells us what pronouns mean. Consider, for example, “Jimmy picked up a toy. He gave it to his sister.” “Jimmy” is the antecedent for “He” and “a toy” is the antecedent for “it.”It’s an important thing in writing. Look at this example from Frank L. Baum’s, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.

At once a little girl rose from her seat and walked to the door of the car, carrying a wicker suit-case in one hand and a round bird-cage covered up with newspapers in the other, while a parasol was tucked under her arm. The conductor helped her off the car and then the engineer started his train again, so that it puffed and groaned and moved slowly away up the track. The reason he was so late was because all through the night there were times when the solid earth shook and trembled under him, and the engineer was afraid that at any moment the rails might spread apart and an accident happen to his passengers. So he moved the cars slowly and with caution.

Now, read it again without the antecedents.

At once she rose from her seat and walked to the door of the car, carrying a wicker suit-case in one hand and a round bird-cage covered up with newspapers in the other, while a parasol was tucked under her arm. He helped her off the car and then he started it again, so that it puffed and groaned and moved slowly away up the track. The reason he was so late was because all through the night there were times when the solid earth shook and trembled under him, and he was afraid that at any moment the rails might spread apart and an accident happen to his passengers. So he moved the cars slowly and with caution.

This one isn’t too confusing, but without antecedents, you don’t know the size or the age of the little girl. You don’t know who helped her off the car and who the other “he” is or what he started. You can figure out that it was a train by the reference to “the track” but you don’t know who was afraid, the first He or the second He.

In life, it is often helpful to know what came before, what events triggered other events. That kind of information can help us understand life and make better choices. It can comfort us to have an explanation for the difficult things and give us an understanding of why we feel the way we do.

It is often used as a technique in dealing with behaviors as a result of feelings. It goes something like this.

“I feel tempted to do X. What happened in my past that was like this feeling and taught me to react this way?”

Sometimes, that information can help a person avoid the behavior.

As with all good things, it can be overdone.

Look at the above passage, this time with no pronouns.

At once a little girl rose from the little girl’s seat and walked to the door of the car, carrying a wicker suit-case in one hand and a round bird-cage covered up with newspapers in the other, while a parasol was tucked under the little girl’s arm. The conductor helped the little girl off the car and then the engineer started the engineer’s train again, so that the train puffed and groaned and moved slowly away up the track. The reason the engineer was so late was because all through the night there were times when the solid earth shook and trembled under the engineer, and the engineer was afraid that at any moment the rails might spread apart and an accident happen to the engineer’s passengers. So the engineer moved the cars slowly and with caution.

It is still a confusing passage without pronouns. How many little girls and how many engineers are there?

If we always have to figure out what the antecedents to our feelings are, we can get mired down in an endless cycle of dwelling in the past and trying to find meaning in things that happened long ago. Sometimes, the reflection is useful. However, sometimes you have to just make a decision and move forward without having to analyze all the things that got you to where you are.

A good story is a balanced mixture of properly connected antecedents and pronouns. The pronouns happen more often and we learn how to connect them to their antecedents without tedious analyses.  When it’s time to decide for ourselves what kind of person we want to be, we can do that without worrying at all what came before. The choice is ours.

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