Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
surmised
English answer:
inferred
- The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2018-08-21 23:55:28 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
English term
surmised
there is no much context. It is a quote from a book.
Please, don't help if you are not feeling comfortable with.
| 4 +7 | inferred |
Charles Davis
|
Non-PRO (2): Edith Kelly, Yvonne Gallagher
When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.
How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:
An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)
A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).
Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.
When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.
* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.
Responses
inferred
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/surmise
Normally, this would imply a process of reasoning: drawing a conclusion. Here it is obviously a question of visual perception (since what the chicken "surmises" is the outlines of something unspecified in the extract given).
"Dimly" can mean "indistinctly". When surmise refers to a mental conclusion, "dimly" is a visual metaphor (expressing lack of clarity). Since this is about what the chicken can see, the lack of clarity is (presumably) literally visual.
Actually the distinction between visual perception and mental inference is not so clear-cut; when we infer what is there from the little we can see, we are processing the information mentally (and generally unconsciously), comparing the visual information we have with our memories of things we have seen that could look like that.
If it is objected that chickens are not capable of this kind of mental process, I would answer that this is (apparently) imaginative literature, which is not bound by literal reality. And anyway, those of us who have pets ascribe human mental processes to them all the time: we are prone to think that they are thinking in the way we do.
The harder part here, I think, is the first part: about the outlines of (something) blurring in the dozing of the man. It's a bit like the first part of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu, about how our sleeping state can be projected onto our surroundings in various ways.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-08-18 18:20:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Just to be clear: it means that the chicken cannot clearly see the outlines of whatever it is but can tell that they are there from indistint indications that it can see.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 6 hrs (2018-08-18 23:23:25 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Smart chicken!
OK, this is no ordinary chicken, but it wouldn't be so strange to say that a chicken dimly surmised the outlines of a fox. Chickens have to be good at recognising foxes from minimal signs; their lives depend on it!
| You are absolutely correct. Because the chicken was choosing 10 for example after someone said 5 + 5. Thank you |
| agree |
philgoddard
9 mins
|
|
Thanks, Phil
|
|
| agree |
Tony M
: Now we know why the chicken crossed the road: to have a better gander at the sleeping man!
28 mins
|
|
Maybe those chickens are not as dumb as they look! Thanks, Tony :-)
|
|
| agree |
Robert Forstag
1 hr
|
|
Thank you, Robert!
|
|
| agree |
Tina Vonhof (X)
4 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Tina :-)
|
|
| neutral |
Daryo
: very interesting guessing - but given the propensity of this Asker to expect help without giving next to no context - it can't be more than that, i.e. just guessing.
6 hrs
|
|
I wouldn't say it's guessing. Call it a surmise — from incomplete evidence — but I don't think more is needed here; there is no other way of reading it, in my view.
|
|
| agree |
JohnMcDove
: I suspect that your guess is as good as mine... well, in actual fact, your deductions and conclusions are usually better... ;-) ¡Un saludo! :-)
10 hrs
|
|
I would say it's the other way round. Un saludo, y un abrazo :-)
|
|
| agree |
Edith Kelly
16 hrs
|
|
Thanks, Edith :-)
|
|
| agree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: Yes, it can only be this meaning/synonym here but agree with Daryo re this asker. As usual there is a lack of context, a negative attitude, and very bad (or NO) formulation of question.
18 hrs
|
|
Many thanks, Yvonne :-)
|
Discussion
'Surmised' normally means soemthing like 'deduced' or 'supposed' or 'figured out' — but without knowing more of the story, it's impossible to know if these might fit or not.