Chapter 3 reference & inference

PRESENTED TO:
PROF. KASHIF
PRESENTED BY:
SHUMAILA JAN
TAHIRA MUNIR
NOREEN AKHTAR
2
REFERENCE & INFERENCE

TOPICS TO BE COVERED
 LAYER 1: SETTING THE BACKGROUND
 NOREEN AKHTAR
 LAYER 2: REFERENCE
 SHUMAILA JAN
 LAYER 3: INFERENCE
 TAHIRA MUNIR
 LAYER 4: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE
TWO
 NOREEN AKHTAR

• MICROPRAGMATICS
• RELATION WITH REFERENCE
• RELATION WITH INFERENCE
LAYER 1: Setting The
Background

MICROPRAGMATICS
The term 'micropragmatics' is used by some
pragmaticians to refer to the pragmatics of
lesser units of human language use, such as
questions of deixis, REFERENCE, anaphora,
speech acts, in other words micropragmatic
contexts.
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 REFERENCE COMES UNDER
MICROPRAGMATICS
 THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF REFERENCES:
 DIRECT REFERENCE
Eg. : “Who is it?”
“it‟s George”
 INDIRECT REFERENCE
Eg. : “Who is it?”
“It‟s me.”
 INFERENCE COMPLETES THE PURPOSE OF
REFERENCE
 Eg: “If I had a yatch.”
George
me
Reference: Yatch (direct)
Inference: the speaker has no
yatch/
The speaker wishes to have a
yatch.

ACTIVITY:
7

REFERENCE
According to dictionary .com ,
Reference is
 a noun which means an act or instance of
referring.
 something for which a name or designation
stands; denotation.
9

There was an assumption that
the use of words to refer to
people and things was a
relatively straightforward
matter.
10

Words themselves don’t refer to
anything. People refer. Clearly tied
to the speaker’s goal.
11

What is reference then?
 Reference is an act in which a
speaker, or writer, uses linguistic
forms to enable a listener, or
reader, to identify something.
12

Linguistics forms = Referring
expressions
13

Categories of referring
expressions are:
14
Proper Nouns
Definite Nouns
Indefinite Nouns
Pronouns

EXAMPLES:
 Proper nouns; example:
Shakespeare, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif
 Definite nouns; example: the author, the
city, the prime minister
 Indefinite nouns; example: a place, a man
 Pronoun; example: it , he, she
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 The choice of one type of referring
expression rather than another
seems to be based, to a large
extent, on what the speaker
assumes the listener already
knows.
17

 It is important to recognize that not all
referring expressions have identifiable
physical referents.
1. Indefinite noun phrases can be used to
identify a physically present entity,
2. they can also be used to describe entities
that are assumed to exist, but are unknown,
3. or entities that, as far as we know, do not
exist.
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EXAMPLES
 a) There’s a man waiting for
you.
 b) He wants to marry a woman
with lots of money.
 c) We would love to find a nine-
foot-tall basket ball player.
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Attributive Use / Referential Use
 A man waiting for you
 A woman with lots of money
 This is sometimes called an attributive
use, meaning 'whoever/whatever fits
the description'. It would be distinct from a
referential use: a specific person is referred
to, although his/her name or some other
description is not used.
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Kinds of Reference
 Anaphoric reference
 Antecedent
 Cataphora
 Zero anaphora or Ellipsis

Anaphoric Reference and
Antecedent
Example
 In the film ,a man and a woman were trying to
wash a cat. The man was holding the cat while
the woman poured the water on it . He said
something to her and they started laughing .
A man a woman and a cat/initial
expression =antecedent
Subsequent expression =anaphor

Cataphora
 Example
 I truned the corner and almost stepped on
it.there was a large snake in the middle of the
path .
 A cataphoric reference unit refers to another
unit that is introduced later on in the
text/speech.

ZERO ANAPHORA
 EXAMPLE: Cook for three minutes.
 No linguistic expression like noun pronoun etc

POINT TO PONDER…
For successful reference
to occur, we must also
recognize the role of ???
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• DEFINITION
LAYER 3: INFERENCE

Elkhart Community Schools28
“Art is so much more
interesting if everything
isn’t in the picture.
And so it is with inferring.”
From: I Read It But I Don’t Get It ~ Cris Tovani

Elkhart Community Schools29
Inference
Background
Knowledge
Making
Connections
Questioning
Predictions
Imagination/
Visualization
Analysis of
Text/speech:
Interpretation/
Judgment
Drawing
Conclusions

INFERENCE
 Inference is just a big word that means a conclusion or
judgment.
 You make inferences everyday. Most of the time you do
so without thinking about it. Suppose you are sitting in
your car stopped at a red signal light. You hear
screeching tires, then a loud crash and breaking glass.
You see nothing, but you infer that there has been a car
accident. We all know the sounds of screeching tires
and a crash. We know that these sounds almost always
mean a car accident. But there could be some other
reason, and therefore another explanation, for the
sounds.
 Making inferences means choosing the most
likely explanation from the facts that reference
provides.

ACTIVITY 
TASK:
DRAW INFERENCES FROM THE TV
COMMERCIAL.

SOCIAL DIMENSION
 The social dimension of reference may also be
tied to the effect of collaboration.
 The immediate recognition of an intended
referent, even when a minimal referring
expression like a pronoun, represents
something shared, something in common and
hence, social closeness.
 Successful reference means that an intention
was recognized, via inference, indicating a
kind of shared knowledge and hence, social
connection.

Example:
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SOCIAL DIMENSION
 INTENTION TO IDENTIFY follows
RECOGNITION OF THE INTENTION
 Eg. : Q. Can I borrow your Shakespeare?
A. Yeah, it‟s there on the table.
Here, thing and person are being identified on
the base of recognition of the intention.

Social Dimension
 Referents are cultural and situation specific
 Eg. :
Q. Where is the cheese sandwich sitting?
A. He‟s is over there by the window.
(waiters‟ conversation in a restaurant)

SOCIAL DIMENSION
 Works by artists and writers are referred to by
their names.
 Eg.
1. Shakespeare takes the whole bottom shelf.
2. Picasso‟s on the far wall.
3. My Rolling Stone is missing.

THE ANAPHORIC
CONNECTION
 Anaphoric connection requires inference to
make sense
 Eg. : I just rented a house. The kitchen is really
big.
Here, inference is: if x has a house, then x has a
kitchen.
 Inference depends on assumed knowledge
 Eg. : We had Chardonnay last night. The wine
was the best part.
Here, inference is that Chardonnay is a kind of

THE ANAPHORIC
CONNECTION
----------------------------------------( CONTINUED)
 Anaphor and antecedent need not be in
grammatical agreement if the inference is
logically made.
 Eg. : The bus came on time, but he didn‟t stop.
Here, „he‟ stands for the bus driver in connection to
the word „bus‟.

DRAW INFERENCE FROM THE
FOLLOWING FUNNY
HEADLINES:
 MINERS REFUSE TO WORK AFTER DEATH
 BLIND BISHOP APPOINTED TO SEE
 MARCH PLANNED FOR NEXT AUGUST
 POLICE CAN’T STOP GAMBLING
 SQUAD HELPS DOG BITE VICTIM
39

Reference is an act in which a speaker, or
writer, uses linguistic forms to enable a
listener, or reader, to identify something.
Inferring is connecting prior knowledge to
text based information to create meaning
beyond what is directly stated.
41

Reference:
It is the symbolic relationship that a linguistic
expression has with the concrete object or
abstraction it represent.
Inference:
It is the conclusion you draw from what you
have observed.
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EXAMPLE 
43

The choice of one type of referring expression
rather than another seems to be based, to a large
extent, on what the speaker assumes the listener
already knows.
Inferring is to conclude / to guess and to
understand the situation after observation.
44

“It is important to recognize
that not all referring
expressions have
identifiable physical
referents. Indefinite noun
phrases can be used to
identify a physically present
entity, but they can also be
used to describe entities
that are assumed to exist,
but are unknown, or entities
that, as far as we know, do
not exist".
 In
inference, we
must have the
object /
situation so
that we are
able to draw
conclusion
and
understanding.
45

Examples of Reference:
a) There's a child calling his mom.
b) He wants to get a job with a flat and
car.
c) She wishes to meet the tooth fairy her
mother keeps talking about.
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Example of Inference:
a)You may observe that a person is running
from a shop that may cause you to infer
that he robbed it and is trying to get away.
It is easy to infer incorrectly so we need to
get all the facts.

ACTIVITY
48

PLEASE DRAW SOME
INFERENCES
 Bill was reading about the sun, the moon, and Mars. It
was a book about . . .
 At recess the students got their gloves, bats and balls.
What were they likely to do?
 During a very severe storm, the electricity went off.
Dad lit a match. What did he probably want to find.
 Maria had a day off school. She looked in the
newspaper to find the best sales. Then she left the
house. Where did she probably go?
 Jess and his father went walking on a warm spring
day. There was a nice breeze in the air. What might
Jesse and his father do to have fun? Rake leaves, fly
a kit or watch TV?
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