Anaphoric inference involves connections between?

Anaphoric inference involves connections between words or phrases in different sentences, specifically focusing on how certain terms refer back to or are related to earlier mentioned concepts or entities. This cognitive process helps readers and listeners follow the flow of information over a broader context than just a single sentence. In language, when a pronoun or a phrase refers back to something previously mentioned, it creates a cohesive link that aids comprehension and maintains clarity in communication.

For example, in a text where one sentence introduces a character ("The dog barked loudly"), and a subsequent sentence refers to the character using a pronoun ("It scared the cat"), the reader must use anaphoric inference to understand that "it" refers back to the "dog." This ability to make such connections is fundamental to language processing and comprehension.

Other options do not fit the definition of anaphoric inference as closely; images and words relate to multimodal processing rather than textual coherence, sentence-meaning connections focus on semantic understanding rather than referencing, and different languages pertain to translation or linguistic diversity rather than inference within a single language structure.