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- The author shows through literary devices such as imagery, tone, figurative language and leaves it up to the reader to infer the meaning. This allows for active interpretation on the part of the reader and makes the reading dynamic rather than passive. An inference is a conclusion you reach by applying logic to the evidence you are given.
Apr 5, 2024 · The author shows through literary devices such as imagery, tone, figurative language and leaves it up to the reader to infer the meaning. This allows for active interpretation on the part of the reader and makes the reading dynamic rather than passive.
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- I. What Is Inference?
- III. The Importance of Inferences
- IV. Examples of Inference in Literature
- V. Examples of Inference in Popular Culture
- VI. Related Terms
An inference is the process of drawing a conclusion from supporting evidence. It’s when you go beyondthe evidence and reach some further conclusion. We draw inferences all the time when we say things like: 1. “I don’t see Anne. She said she was tired, so she must have gone home to bed.” 2. “Sarah’s been at the gym a lot; she must be trying to lose ...
Without inferences, there’s no way we could understand our world. It’s all well and good to ask for evidence and proof, but sooner or later we inevitably have to go beyond the evidence and actually draw a conclusion! Inferences are also critically important for literature, because otherwise authors would have to explain everything to us out loud – ...
Example 1
This might be the most famous inference in the history of philosophy. It’s pretty sound, logically, but in fact it contains a hidden assumption (i.e. it’s an enthymeme)! The hidden assumption is: all thinking things are. So to re-write the quote as a syllogism we’d have to make it “I think, and all thinking things are. Therefore I am.”
Example 2
This quote comes from the very beginning of Moby-Dick. In it, the narrator describes his reasons for going out on the sea voyage that will bring him in contact with Ahab and the infamous Whale. From the words of this passage, we can infer a couple of things: one, that the narrator has a tendency to get depressed and “grim about the mouth”; and two, that for whatever reason he finds it helpful to be on the water.
Example 1
You probably remember this scene in The Lion King. In it, Simba finds his father, Mufasa, trampled to death by wildebeests. As viewers, we see Simba trying to wake his father up, and we infer that Simba doesn’t understand death, or can’t bring himself to believe that his father is gone. At the same time, we’re watching Simba make the wrong inference – on the basis of the evidence (his father lying motionless on the ground), he’s reached the conclusion that Mufasa is simply sleeping or knocked...
Example 2
The pilot episode of Firefly gives us a great example of audience inferences being used as red herrings. Throughout the episode, there are constant hints that Simon Tam is a federal agent sent to keep an eye on Captain Reynolds and his crew. We know, for example, that he has a large, mysterious container in the hold and that he’s very secretive about its contents. From this information, we inferthat he’s the agent. But it turns out that Simon isn’t the agent, and our inferences were based on...
Assumption
People sometimes confuse the words “infer” and “assume.” But assuming is what you do when you don’t have any evidence – it’s a belief you’ve already come to ahead of time. Assumptions are related to inferences because a general assumption helps us draw conclusions in any specific case. For example, look again at the first example in §1 (the one about Anne going home). To make this inference, we have to assume that Anne was being honest about how she felt, and also that there were no other fac...
Syllogism
A syllogism is a logically complete statement that contains an inference. It’s logically complete because it doesn’t leave out any evidence or make any assumptions. It works entirely on the basis of stated evidence. Take, for example, the third inference from section 1, the one about Jacko the dog. This is a logically complete statement, because the conclusion (Jacko loves belly rubs) is forced on us by the evidence. In this case, the evidence might be debatable (Are there some dogs that disl...
Enthymeme
This is a fancy word for a partial syllogism, one in which some evidence is assumedrather than stated. We’ve already looked at the syllogism of Jacko the dog. To make it into an enthymeme, simply drop one piece of evidence and turn it into an assumption: 1. “Jacko is a dog. Therefore Jacko loves belly rubs.” 1.1. We’re assuming that all dogs love belly rubs. 2. “All dogs love belly rubs. Therefore Jacko loves belly rubs. 2.1. We’re assuming that Jacko is a dog.
The ability to make inferences helps students develop an understanding of the author’s perspective by grasping the subtle underlying meanings in a text. Without inference, people usually end up translating a text word by word, missing out on the associations a writer is trying to make.
They infer unstated meanings based on social conventions, shared knowledge, shared experience, or shared values. They make sense of remarks by recognizing implications and drawing conclusions. Readers read ideas more than words, and infer, rather than find, meaning.
Readers bring to their reading recognition of those symbols, an understanding of what the words mean within the given social and historical context, and an understanding of the remarks within their own framework of what might make sense, or what they might imagine an author to have intended.
Making inferences means choosing the most likely explanation from the facts at hand. There are several ways to help you draw conclusions from what an author may be implying. The following are descriptions of the various ways to aid you in reaching a conclusion. General Sense.
In order to infer meaning, readers must combine the information that the author has written with their own experiences—both reading experiences and life experiences. Not only is the process of making inferences difficult for a beginner, the process of teaching
