Presupposition.docx

Presupposition.docx

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Presupposition

Presupposition

ZhouJiangxin

周江鑫

Class4,Grade2008

No.200805140437

TheSchoolofForeignLanguages

ChinaWestNormalUniversity

APaperforPresuppositiononPragmatics

May2011

Presupposition

Inpragmatics,thereisanappealtotheideathatspeakersassumecertaininformationisalreadyknownbytheirlisteners.Becauseitistreatedasknown,suchinformationwillgenerallynotbestatedandconsequentlywillcountaspartofwhatiscommunicatedbutnotsaid.Thetechnicaltermspresuppositionisusedtodescribethiskindofinformation.

Inordertodiscussthistopic,weneedtosomeintroductiontothetypeofanalyticdiscussionassociatedwiththelogicalanalysisoftheseofthesephenomena.

Ⅰ.Introduction

Inthebranchoflinguisticsknownaspragmatics,andpresuppositionisanimplicitassumptionabouttheworldorbackgroundbeliefrelatingtoanutterancewhosetruthistakenforgrantedindiscourse,andapresuppositionissomethingthespeakerassumestobethecasepriortomakinganutterance.Speakers,notsentences,havepresupposition.

Examplesofpresuppositionsinclude:

∙Doyouwanttodoitagain?

oPresupposition:

thatyouhavedoneitalready,atleastonce.

∙Janenolongerwritesfiction.

oPresupposition:

thatJaneoncewrotefiction.

Ⅱ.MainReference

Apresuppositionmustbemutuallyknownorassumedbythespeakerandaddresseefortheutterancetobeconsideredappropriateincontext.Itwillgenerallyremainanecessaryassumptionwhethertheutteranceisplacedintheformofanassertion,denial,orquestion,andcanbeassociatedwithaspecificlexicalitemorgrammaticalfeature（presuppositiontrigger）intheutterance.

Crucially,negationofanexpressiondoesnotchangeitspresuppositions:

IwanttodoitagainandIdon'twanttodoitagainbothpresupposethatthesubjecthasdoneitalreadyoneormoretimes;MywifeispregnantandMywifeisnotpregnantbothpresupposethatthesubjecthasawife.Inthisrespect,presuppositionisdistinguishedfromentailmentandimplicature.Forexample,ThepresidentwasassassinatedentailsthatThepresidentisdead,butiftheexpressionisnegated,theentailmentisnotnecessarilytrue.

Negationofasentencecontainingapresupposition

Ifpresuppositionsofasentencearenotconsistentwiththeactualstateofaffairs,thenoneoftwoapproachescanbetaken.GiventhesentencesMywifeispregnantandMywifeisnotpregnantwhenonehasnowife,theneither:

1.Boththesentenceanditsnegationarefalse;or

2.Strawson'sapproach:

Both"mywifeispregnant"and"mywifeisnotpregnant"useawrongpresupposition（i.e.thatthereexistsareferentwhichcanbedescribedwiththenounphrasemywife）andthereforecannotbeassignedtruthvalues.

BertrandRusselltriestosolvethisdilemmawithtwointerpretationsofthenegatedsentence:

1.“Thereexistsexactlyoneperson,whoismywifeandwhoisnotpregnant”

2.“Theredoesnotexistexactlyoneperson,whoismywifeandwhoispregnant.”

Forthefirstphrase,Russellwouldclaimthatitisfalse,whereasthesecondwouldbetrueaccordingtohim.

Projectionofpresuppositions

Apresuppositionofapartofanutteranceissometimesalsoapresuppositionofthewholeutterance,andsometimesnot.We'veseenthatthephrasemywifetriggersthepresuppositionthatIhaveawife.Thefirstsentencebelowcarriesthatpresupposition,eventhoughthephraseoccursinsideanembeddedclause.Inthesecondsentence,however,itdoesnot.JohnmightbemistakenabouthisbeliefthatIhaveawife,orhemightbedeliberatelytryingtomisinformhisaudience,andthishasaneffectonthemeaningofthesecondsentence,but,perhapssurprisingly,notonthefirstone.

1.Johnthinksthatmywifeisbeautiful.

2.Johnsaidthatmywifeisbeautiful.

Thus,thisseemstobeapropertyofthemainverbsofthesentences,thinkandsay,respectively.AfterworkbyLauriKarttunen,verbsthatallowpresuppositionsto“passup”tothewholesentence（“project”）arecalledholes,andverbsthatblocksuchpassingup,orprojectionofpresuppositionsarecalledplugs.Somelinguisticenvironmentsareintermediatebetweenplugsandholes:

Theyblocksomepresuppositionsandallowotherstoproject.Thesearecalledfilters.Anexampleofsuchanenvironmentisindicativeconditionals（“If-then”clauses）.Aconditionalsentencecontainsanantecedentandaconsequent.Theantecedentisthepartprecededbytheword“if”andtheconsequentisthepartthatis（orcouldbe）precededby“then.”Iftheconsequentcontainsapresuppositiontrigger,andthetriggeredpresuppositionisexplicitlystatedintheantecedentoftheconditional,thenthepresuppositionisblocked.Otherwise,itisallowedtoprojectuptotheentireconditional.Hereisanexample:

IfIhaveawife,thenmywifeisblonde.

Here,thepresuppositiontriggeredbytheexpressionmywife（thatIhaveawife）isblocked,becauseitisstatedintheantecedentoftheconditional:

Thatsentencedoesn'timplythatIhaveawife.Inthefollowingexample,itisnotstatedintheantecedent,soitisallowedtoproject,i.e.thesentencedoesimplythatIhaveawife.

Ifit'salready4am,thenmywifeisprobablyangry.

Hence,conditionalsentencesactasfiltersforpresuppositionsthataretriggeredbyexpressionsintheirconsequent.

Asignificantamountofcurrentworkinsemanticsandpragmaticsisdevotedtoaproperunderstandingofwhenandhowpresuppositionsproject.

Presuppositiontriggers

Apresuppositiontriggerisalexicalitemorlinguisticconstructionwhichisresponsibleforthepresupposition.ThefollowingisaselectionofpresuppositionaltriggersfollowingStephenC.Levinson'sclassictextbookonPragmatics,whichinturndrawsonalistproducedbyLauriKarttunen.Asiscustomary,thepresuppositionaltriggersthemselvesareitalicized,andthesymbol »standsfor‘presupposes’

Definitedescriptions

Mainarticle:

Definitedescription

Definitedescriptionsarephrasesoftheform"theX"whereXisanounphrase.Thedescriptionissaidtobeproperwhenthephraseappliestoexactlyoneobject,andconversely,itissaidtobeimproperwheneitherthereexistsmorethanonepotentialreferences,asin"thesenatorfromOhio",ornoneatall,asin"thekingofFrance".Inconventionalspeech,definitedescriptionsareimplicitlyassumedtobeproper,hencesuchphrasestriggerthepresuppositionthatthereferentisuniqueandexistent.

∙Johnsawthemanwithtwoheads.

»Thereexistsamanwithtwoheads.

FactualVerbs

Seealso:

Epistemology&Truth

InWesternepistemology,thereisatraditionoriginatingwithPlatoofdefiningknowledgeasjustifiedtruebelief.Onthisdefinition,forsomeonetoknowX,itisrequiredthatXbetrue.Alinguisticquestionthusarisesregardingtheusageofsuchphrases:

doesapersonwhostates“JohnknowsX”implicitlyclaimthetruthofX?

StevenPinkerdiscussestheusageofthephrase"havinglearned"asanexampleofafactualverbinGeorgeW.Bush'sstatementthat“BritishIntelligencehaslearnedthatSaddamHusseinrecentlysoughtsignificantquantitiesofuraniumfromAfrica.Thefactualitythesis,thepropositionthatrelationalpredicateshavingtodowithknowledge,suchasknows,learn,remembers,andrealized,presupposethefactualtruthoftheirobject,however,wassubjecttonotablecriticismbyAllanHazlett.MartharegretsdrinkingJohn'shomebrew.

»MarthadrankJohn'shomebrew.

∙FrankensteinwasawarethatDraculawasthere.

»Draculawasthere.

∙Johnrealizedthathewasindebt.

»Johnwasindebt.

∙Itwasoddhowproudhewas.

»Hewasproud.

Somefurtherfactualpredicates:

know;besorrythat;beproudthat;beindifferentthat;begladthat;besadthat.

Implicativeverbs

∙Johnmanagedtoopenthedoor.

»Johntriedtoopenthedoor.

∙Johnforgottolockthedoor.

»Johnoughttohavelocked,orintendedtolock,thedoor.

Somefurtherimplicativepredicates:

XhappenedtoV»Xdidn'tplanorintendtoV;XavoidedV-ing»Xwasexpectedto,orusuallydid,oroughttoV,etc.

Changeofstateverbs

∙Johnstoppedbeatinghiswife.

»Johnhadbeenbeatinghiswife.

∙Joanbeganbeatingherhusband.

»Joanhadn'tbeenbeatingherhusband.

∙Kissingercontinuedtoruletheworld.

»»Kissingerhadbeenrulingtheworld.

Somefurtherchangeofsateverbs:

start;finish;carryon;cease;take（asinXtookYfromZ »Ywasat/in/withZ）;leave;enter;come;go;arrive;etc.

Interatives

∙Theflyingsaucercameagain.

»Theflyingsaucercamebefore.

∙Youcan'tgetgobstoppersanymore.

»Youoncecouldgetgobstoppers.

∙Carterreturnedtopower.

»Carterheldpowerbefore.

Furtheriteratives:

anothertime;tocomeback;restore;repeat;forthenthtime.

Temporalclauses

∙BeforeStrawsonwasevenborn,Fregenoticedpresuppositions.

»Strawsonwasborn.

∙WhileChomskywasrevolutionizinglinguistics,therestofsocialsciencewasasleep.

»Chomskywasrevolutionizinglinguistics.

∙SinceChurchilldied,we'velackedaleader.

»Churchilldied.

Furthertemporalclauseconstructors:

after;during;whenever;as（asinAsJohnwasgettingup,heslipped）.

Cleftsentences

∙Cleftconstruction:

ItwasHenrythatkissedRosie.

»SomeonekissedRosie.

∙Pseudo-cleftconstruction:

WhatJohnlostwashiswallet.

»Johnlostsomething.

Comparisonsandcontrasts

Comparisonsandcontrastsmaybemarkedbystress（orbyotherprosodicmeans）,byparticleslike“too”,orbycomparativesconstructions.

∙MariannecalledAdolphamalechauvinist,andthenHEinsultedHER.

»ForMariannetocallAdolphamalechauvinistwouldbetoinsulthim.

∙CarolisabetterlinguistthanBarbara.

»Barbaraisalinguist.

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