Main Types of Inference
        in Reading a Media Text

        Daniel Chandler

        Inferences concerning elements which may contribute to comprehension but which are not explicit in the text...

        • Participants: agents and objects involved in actions;
        • Actions: nature of agents’ behaviour;
        • States: preconditions and outcomes (including existence and properties of objects, and spatial, temporal and logical relationships between elements);
        • Circumstances: locations in time and place of agents, objects and states;
        • Causation: causes and consequences of actions or events (including goals - states of affairs that agents seek to bring about, and plans - methods to be employed);
        • Themes: themes underlying sequences of events (including motivation).

        (Classification depends on context)

        Anaphoric reference: expressions which refer back to others already established

        Daniel Chandler, UWA December 1995