Inferring and Applying Inferences to Texts
Source: Suffraget parade (Washington DC 1913), Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons
Using context clues involves making inferences, or educated guesses. You infer meaning by using context clues: definitions, examples, synonyms, antonyms, and more general kinds of clues. After you infer something about a word from its context, you will be more conscious of that word and surprised at how often you see it. You may not be able to define it or use it in a sentence, but once a writer has brought a word to your attention, it can eventually become your word.
In this next section, you’ll infer the meaning of several words from an excerpt of Russell Baker’s memoir Growing Up. Let’s start with an example. Find the word “vain” in the second paragraph of the excerpt below. How does the context help us understand this word? In the sentence before the one that contains “vain,” Baker’s mother accuses men of thinking they are “God’s gift to creation.” If men, according to Baker’s mother, are that proud, then a vain man must think a lot of himself. You can infer that you would not feel complimented if someone said you were “vain.”
My mother’s efforts to turn poor specimens of manhood into glittering prizes began long before she became my mother. As the older daughter in a family of nine children, she had tried it on her younger brothers without much success. When she married she had tried it on my father with no success at all.
Her attitudes toward men were a strange blend of twentieth-century feminism and Victorian romance. The feminism filled her with anger against men and a rage against the unfair advantages that came with the right to wear trousers. “Just because you wear pants doesn’t mean you’re God’s gift to creation, Sonny Boy,” she shouted at me one day when I said something about the helplessness of women. Of a man vain about his charm with women, “Just because he wears pants he thinks he can get through life with half a brain.”
The unfair advantage bestowed by pants was a lifelong grievance (1). As a girl of sixteen she denounced (2) it while arguing the case for women’s suffrage in her 1913 high school debate. “Women do not ask to be placed on a throne as goddess or queen,” she said. “They are content to be equal. At present they are only half-citizens. Is the right to vote to be not a matter of right or justice, but a mere matter of pantaloons?"
She was so pleased with the phrase that she underlined “pantaloons” twice on script before concluding, “A noted man once said to a young man starting out to practice, ‘Young man, espouse some righteous unpopular cause.’ That is just what I have been called upon to do, and whether I win or lose, ‘I had rather be right than President’—and perhaps, when women shall have won the ballot, some one of the Lancaster High School girls will be both right and President.”
And yet some part of her did want to be queen. Her modern feminist passion for equality was at war with her nineteenth-century idea of women as the purifying, ennobling (3) element of society, special creatures who ought to be protected and treasured as precious assets of civilization. She wanted the equality, but also wanted to be a lady. Somewhere she had picked up the tyrannical spirit of the ladies of the Mauve Decade and, like them, looked upon men as naturally brutish creatures whose licentiousness (4) and lazy instincts could be overcome only by the guidance of a good woman. “Behind every successful man you’ll find a good woman” was another favorite in her storehouse of maxims.
Her model of male excellence, the paragon (5) of manhood against whom she measured all other men, was her father. “Papa,” she always called him.
Look at the context in this excerpt from Growing Up. Make an inference for each of the italicized words, just like we did for the word “vain.” See if you can select the correct response for each question.
Next, we’ll use the same rich context from Growing Up to examine context clues from a different angle. This time we’ll reverse the process. Instead of deciding the meaning of an unknown word, we’ll search for the clues.Define the word “grievance” from item 1 above. Baker gives us several clues:
- The word “grievance” is modified by the adjective “lifelong,” indicating that a grievance is not a passing whim.
- The adjective “unfair” is in the same sentence. A grievance might be a complaint against something unjust.
- In the sentences before the word “grievance,” the general context clues like “anger against” and “rage against” alert us to the intensity of his mother’s distress.
- In the sentence following the word, the verb “denounced” is used. It means to “criticize, condemn, or protest.” His mother seriously resented whatever gave her the grievance.
If you don’t know what a grievance is, try to deduce it from what you’ve learned: it’s a raging resentment against an injustice. That sounds sort of like a complaint. Let’s replace “grievance” in that sentence with “complaint.”
“The unfair advantage bestowed by pants was a lifelong [complaint].”
A “grievance” is very much like a “complaint.” A complaint is a little different—milder and less formal—but the word is close enough to get you over the bump in the road.
My mother’s efforts to turn poor specimens of manhood into glittering prizes began long before she became my mother. As the older daughter in a family of nine children, she had tried it on her younger brothers without much success. When she married she had tried it on my father with no success at all.
Her attitudes toward men were a strange blend of twentieth-century feminism and Victorian romance. The feminism filled her with anger against men and a rage against the unfair advantages that came with the right to wear trousers. “Just because you wear pants doesn’t mean you’re God’s gift to creation, Sonny Boy,” she shouted at me one day when I said something about the helplessness of women. Of a man vain about his charm with women, “Just because he wears pants he thinks he can get through life with half a brain.”
The unfair advantage bestowed by pants was a lifelong grievance. As a girl of sixteen she denounced it while arguing the case for women’s suffrage (1) in her 1913 high school debate. “Women do not ask to be placed on a throne as goddess or queen,” she said. “They are content to be equal. At present they are only half-citizens. Is the right to vote to be not a matter of right or justice, but a mere matter of pantaloons?”
She was so pleased with the phrase that she underlined “pantaloons” twice on script before concluding, “A noted man once said to a young man starting out to practice, ‘Young man, espouse (2) some righteous unpopular cause.’ That is just what I have been called upon to do, and whether I win or lose, ‘I had rather be right than President’—and perhaps, when women shall have won the ballot, some one of the Lancaster High School girls will be both right and President.”
And yet some part of her did want to be queen. Her modern feminist passion for equality was at war with her nineteenth-century idea of women as the purifying, ennobling element of society, special creatures who ought to be protected and treasured as precious assets of civilization. She wanted the equality, but also wanted to be a lady. Somewhere she had picked up the tyrannical spirit of the ladies of the Mauve Decade and, like them, looked upon men as naturally brutish creatures whose licentiousness (3) and lazy instincts could be overcome only by the guidance of a good woman. “Behind every successful man you’ll find a good woman“ was another favorite in her storehouse of maxims (4).
Her model of male excellence, the paragon (5) of manhood against whom she measured all other men, was her father. “Papa,” she always called him.
Now, using your notes, write the context clues for each of these words. Check your understanding when you are finished.
- suffrage
- espouse
- licentiousness
- maxims
- paragon
Sample Responses:
- arguing the case, debate, equal, women shall have won the ballot
- young man starting out, righteous unpopular cause, rather be right
- brutish, creatures, lazy instincts
- “Behind every successful man you’ll find a good woman,” was another favorite; storehouse
- model, excellence, against whom she modeled all other