语义学 蕴含与预设.docx

语义学 蕴含与预设.docx

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语义学蕴含与预设

句子语义学

词和词之间有各种各样的意义关系，我们称之为senserelation。

句子也一样，可以有各种意义关系。

句子语义学是在句子层面对意义进行研究，并把句子当成一个整体来看待。

◆Presupposition前提/预设，这一概念是由哲学家弗雷格（G.Frege）首先提出来的。

在言语交际中，我们所说的一句句话并不是孤立的，相互之间毫无联系的。

相反前一句话和后一句话往往有密切的联系。

Pleaseopenthedoor.

这句话的意思很清楚，就是“请把们打开”，但是说这句话必须有一个前提，那就是“现在要开的门再说话时是关着的”。

所以从语义的角度来看，句子所包含的“前提”和这个句子本身的意义有十份密切的关系

句子的前提有这样的特点：

否定了句子本身，句子的前提保留不变。

Johnismarried.

Johnexists.

Johnisnotmarried.

◆Semanticpresuppositionandpragmaticpresupposition

语义预设是对语句之间关系所做的逻辑分析，他面对的是一种不变的关系：

即如果P在语义上预设Q,则P总是在语义上预设Q。

但在实际的语言活动中（语用预设），预设通常不是语义中稳定的不受约束的部分。

这也正是有些语言学家认为预设属于语用学而不属于语义学的主要原因。

一个重要的事实是，在一定的语境里，预设会消失，也就是说预设具有可消失性（defeasibility）。

例如：

Suecriedbeforeshefinishedherthesis.

Suediedbeforeshefinishedherthesis.

◆WhatisSemanticPresupposition?

Inmanydiscussionsoftheconcept,presuppositionistreatedasarelationshipbetweentwopropositionsbythelinguists.Ifwesaythesentencein（1a.）containsthepropositionpandthesentencein（1b.）containsthepropositionq,then,using＞＞tomean‘presupposes’,wecanrepresenttherelationshipasin（1c.）.

（1）a.Mary’sdogiscute.（＝p）

b.Maryhasadog.（=q）

c.p＞＞q

Interestingly,whenweproducetheoppositeofthesentencein（1a.）bynegatingit（=NOTp）,asin（2a.）,wefindthattherelationshipofpresuppositiondoesnotchange.Thatis,thesamepropositionq,repeatedas（2b.）,continuestobepresupposedbyNOTp,asshownin（2c.）.

（2）a.Mary’sdogisn’tcute.（＝NOTp）

b.Maryhasadog.（=q）

c.NOTp＞＞q

Presuppositionisaninference（推论）tothepropositionofthesentence.Takethefollowingsentencesforexampleagain:

e.g.（3）Johnismarried.

（4）Johnexists.

（5）Johnisnotmarried.

Comment:

if（3）istrue,（4）istrue;if（3）isnottrue,（4）isstilltrue.Inthiscase,wecansayboth（3）and（5）presuppose（4）.Apresuppositionissomethingthespeakerassumestobethecasepriortomakinganutterance.Speakers,notsentences,havepresuppositions.Anentailmentissomethingthatlogicallyfollowsfromwhatisassertedintheutterance.Sentences,notspeakers,haveentailments.

◆Semanticpresuppositionwouldbebasedonthefollowingdefinition:

SentenceAsemanticallypresupposesanothersentenceBiff:

ifandonlyif,iff是充分必要条件

（a）inallsituationswhereAistrue,Bistrue

（b）inallsituationswhereAisfalse,Bistrue

◆Typesofpresupposition

Potentialpresupposition:

intheanalysisofhowspeakers’assumptionsaretypicallyexpressed,presuppositionhasbeenassociatedwiththeuseofalargenumberofwords,phrases,andstructures.Theselinguisticformsshallbeconsideredasindicatorsofpotentialpresuppositions,whichcanonlybecomeactualpresuppositionsincontextswithspeakers.Thefollowingkindsofpresuppositionsareallpotentialpresuppositions.Nowwe’lllookatthemajorpresuppositiontypesmarkedbydifferentlinguisticfeatures.

◆Existentialpresupposition:

presupposetheexistenceofsomething.（my）.Itisnotonlyassumedtobepresentinpossessiveconstructions,butmoregenerallyinanydefinitedescriptionssuchasdefinitenounphrasewithdetermines‘the’,‘this’,‘that’,‘these’,‘those’,etc.Byusinganyoftheexpressionsin（16）,thespeakerisassumedtobecommittedtotheexistenceoftheentitiesnamed.

（16）e.g.ThekingofSweden,thecat,thegirlnextdoor（Yule,2004:

27）

◆Factivepresupposition:

presupposesomethingasafact.（know）.Anumberoffactiveverbs,suchas‘realize’in（17a）and‘regret’in（17b）,aswellasphrasesinvolving‘be’with‘aware’in（17c）,‘odd’in（17d）,and‘glad’in（17e）havefactivepresuppositions.

（17）a.Shedidn’trealizehewasill.

（＞＞Hewasill）

b.Weregrettellinghim.

（＞＞Wetoldhim）

c.Iwasn’tawarethatshewasmarried.

（＞＞Shewasmarried）

d.Itisn’toddthatheleftearly.

（＞＞Heleftearly）

e.I’mgladthatit’sover.

（＞＞It’sover）

Thepresupposedinformationfollowingtheverb‘know’canbetreatedasafact,andisdescribedasafactivepresupposition.Wordslikeknow,realize,regretaswellasphrasesinvolving‘be’with‘aware’,‘odd’,and‘glad’havefactivepresuppositions.（Yule,2004:

27-28）

◆Lexicalpresupposition:

whenaspecificwordtriggersapresupposition.Itisfeaturedbyimplicativeverbslike‘manage’,‘start’,‘stop’,‘forget’,etc.Generallyspeaking,inlexicalpresupposition,theuseofoneformwithitsassertedmeaningisconventionallyinterpretedwiththepresuppositionthatanother（non-asserted）meaningisunderstood.

Eachtimeyousaythatsomeone‘managed’todosomething,theassertedmeaningisthatthepersonsucceededinsomeway.Whenyousaythatsomeone‘didn’tmanage’,theassertedmeaningisthatthepersondidnotsucceed.Inbothcases,however,thereisapresupposition（non-asserted）thattheperson‘tried’todothatsomething.So,‘managed’isconventionallyinterpretedasasserting‘succeeded’andpresupposing‘tried’.

（18）a.Hestoppedsmoking.

（＞＞Heusedtosmoke）

b.Theystartedcomplaining.

（＞＞Theyweren’tcomplainingbefore）

c.You’relateagain.

（＞＞Youwerelatebefore）

Lexicalpresupposition:

inlexicalpresupposition,theuseofoneformwithitsassertedmeaningisconventionallyinterpretedwiththepresuppositionthatanother（non-asserted）meaningisunderstood.Forexample,someone‘managed’todosomething,theassertedmeaningisthatthepersonsucceededinsomeway.Someone‘didn’tmanage’;theassertedmeaningisthatthepersondidnotsucceed.Inbothcases,thereisapresupposition（non-asserted）thattheperson‘tried’todothatsomething.So‘managed’isconventionallyinterpretedasasserting‘succeeded’andpresupposing‘tried’.Otherexamples,involvingthelexicalitems,are‘stop’,‘start’,and‘again’.（Yule,2004:

28）

◆Structuralpresupposition:

certainsentencestructurespresupposesomethingtobetrue.（wh-questions）.Wemightsaythatspeakerscanusesuchstructurestotreatinformationaspresupposed（i.e.assumedtobetrue）andhencetobeacceptedastruebythelistener.

Forexample,thewh-questionconstructioninEnglish,asshownin（19a）and（19b）,isconventionallyinterpretedwiththepresuppositionthattheinformationafterthewh-formisalreadyknowntobethecase.

a.Whendidheleave?

（＞＞Heleft）

b.Wheredidyoubuythebike?

（＞＞Youboughtthebike）

Certainsentencestructureshavebeenanalyzedasconventionallyandregularlypresupposingthatpartofthestructureisalreadyassumedtobetrue.Wemightsaythatspeakerscanusesuchstructurestotreatinformationaspresupposed（i.e.assumedtobetrue）andhencetobeacceptedastruebylistener.Forexample,thewh-questionconstructioninEnglishisconventionallyinterpretedasthattheinformationafterthewh-formisalreadyknowntobethecase.Suchstructurally-basedpresuppositionsmayrepresentsubtlewaysofmakinginformationthatthespeakerbelievesappeartobewhatthelistenershouldbelieve.（wh-questions）

◆Non-factivepresupposition:

Itisonethatisassumednottobetrue.Verbslike‘dream’,‘imagine’,and‘pretend’,asshownin（20）,areusedwiththepresuppositionthatwhatfollowsisnottrue.

（20）.a.IdreamedthatIwasrich.

（＞＞Iwasnotrich）

b.WeimaginedwewereinNewYork.

（＞＞wewerenotinNewYork）

Hepretendstobeill.

（＞＞Heisnotill）

◆Counter-facturalpresupposition:

Whatispresupposedisnotonlynottrue,butistheoppositeofwhatistrue,or‘contrarytofacts’.（Conditionalstructure）

Aconditionalstructureofthetypeshownin（21）,generallycalledacounterfactualconditional,presupposesthattheinformationintheif-clauseisnottrueatthetimeofutterance.

（21）.Ifyouweremyfriend,youwouldhavehelpedme.

（＞＞youarenotmyfriend）

Summary:

Type

Example

Presupposition

existential

theX

＞＞Xexists

factive

Iregretleaving

＞＞Ileft

non-factive

Hepretendedtogo

＞＞Hedidn’tgo

lexical

Hemanagedtoescape

＞＞Hetriedtoescape

structural

Whendidshedie?

＞＞Shedied

counterfactural

IfIweren’till,

＞＞Iamill

◆Thepropertiesofpresuppositions

★Cancelability/Defeasibility:

Levinson（1983:

186）statesthattheycanbecancelledoutbyeithertheimmediatelinguisticcontextorbysomewidercontextormodeofdiscourse.Ifwesay‘Thecommitteefailedtoreachadecision’,itpresupposesthattheytried,butwecancanceloutthatpresuppositionifweadd‘becausetheydidn’tevengetroundtodiscussingit’.Similarly,wecanarguepresuppositionoutofthewaybyavariantonthereductioadabsurdum（thedisproofofapropositionbyshowingthatitsconclusioncanonlybeabsurd）modeofdiscourse:

‘Hedidn’tdoit,andshedidn’tdoit…Infact,nobodydidit’.Theyaredefensiblein（a）certaindiscoursecontexts,（b）certainintra-sententialcontext.Thispropertywillprovetobetheundoing（doingawaywith）ofanypossiblesemantictheoryofpresupposition.Theyaredefeasibleincertainintra-sententialcontextsandcertaindiscoursecontext,forexample,

（1）Suecriedbeforeshefinishedherthesis.

（2）Suefinishedherthesis.

（3）Suediedbeforeshefinishedherthesis.

InSentence（3）thepresuppositionseemstodropout,sincewegenerallyholdthatpeopledonotdothingsaftertheydie,itfollowsthatshecouldnothavefinishedherthesis.Theyareliabletoevaporateincertaincontexts,eitherimmediatelinguisticcontextorthelessimmediatediscoursecontext,oroncircumstanceswherecontraryassumptionsaremade.（Levinson,2001,p187）

Anotherkindofcontextualdefeasibilityarisesincertainkindsofdiscoursecontexts.Forexample,thecleftsentence1issupposedtopresuppose2:

1.Itisn’tLukewhowillbetrayyou.

2.Someonewillbetrayyou.

Yousaythatsomeoneinthisroomwillbetrayyou.Wellmaybeso.B