In those cases, the enthymeme is only probably true because there are other sources of coughs besides pathogens, children besides parturition, and reasons for yawning besides sleepiness, such as allergies, adoption, and fatigue from exercising, respectively.
In the words of rhetorician William Benoit, the missing premise is: "assumed by rhetor when inventing and by audience when understanding the argument.
"[8] Some examples of this kind of enthymeme are as follows: In the first case, the missing term of the syllogism is "French novels are irreverent" and might be an assumption held by an audience that would make sense of the enthymematic argument.
In the second case, the missing term of the syllogism is "Starbucks customers all enjoy coffee" and this might be another assumption held by audiences to make sense of that particular argument.
Such unstated premises can also rise to the level of axioms (statements so commonly accepted as to be thought universally true) and logical fallacies.
[9][10] Modern-day internet memes are a good example of this, their meaning being inherited through the input and adaptations of the collective group of users who come across them, share them, and create them.
Carol Poster argues that this later interpretation of the enthymeme was invented by British rhetoricians such as Richard Whately in the eighteenth century.