PRESUPPOSITION

Presented By:M Azam ShahidAzhar Munir BhattiShakeel JohnAtif SaddiqueKhalid Saleem

Presented To:Dr Shehzad Farooqui

Presupposition

Outline

Introduction

Types ofPresupposition

Theories of Presupposition

Location & Projection problems

Antipresupposition

Conclusion withQ & A

Speakers assume certain information is already known by their listeners.

This is part of what is communicated but not said.

Presuppositions and entailments

Two aspects of what is communicated but not said

Presupposition: The information that a speaker assumes to be already known. (The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, 1987)  Implicit meanings conveyed by the speaker through the use of particular words.

Ex: "The Cold War has ended" presupposes that the existence of the entities it refers to, in this case the "Cold War".

Speakers, not sentences, have presuppositions

A presupposition is a condition which must be fulfilled in order for an expression to make sense

A presupposition is introduced by a lexical element or construction called the presupposition trigger

Definition

A presupposition:Is a background belief, mutually assumed by the

speaker and the addressee for the utterance to be considered appropriate in context

Survives when the utterance is negated, questioned or embedded in an attitude context

Is triggered by a lexical item or a grammatical construction in the utterance

Introduction

Presuppositions are associated with the use of a large number of words, phrases and structures. These linguistic forms are considered as indicators of potential presupposition, which can only become actual presupposition in contexts with speakers.

TYPES OF PRESUPPOSITION

Entities named by the speaker and assumed to be present - NP. - Possessive constructions“Rahat’s car is new” we can presuppose that Rahat exists and that he has a car.

Some lexical triggers:Definite NPs:

The student fell asleep.The student didn’t fall asleep

Atif is a bachelor (Atif is an unmarried male person)

Existential Presupposition

Identified by the presence of some verbs such as "know“, "realize“, “be glad”, “be sorry”, etc.

Some lexical triggers:Factive verbs:

Lawrence realized Rana ate a sandwich.Rana regretted eating a sandwich.Rana liked eating a sandwich.I was aware of the class cancellation on SaturdayThey announced the winner of the contest.She didn’t realize that she was ill.

Factive Presupposition

In using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning will be understood. For instance:

Mary stopped running. (>>He used to run.)  You are late again. (>> You were late before.) Are you still such a bad driver? (>> You were a bad driver)

"stop“, "again“ “still” are taken to presuppose another (unstated) concept. Some lexical triggers:

Change of state verbs:Rana stopped eating a sandwich (at 2pm).Rana started eating a sandwich (at 2pm).Verbs of judgment:Lawrence blamed Rana for eating the sandwich.Lawrence faults Rana for eating the sandwich.

Lexical Presupposition

It is the assumption associated with the use of certain structures. - wh-question constructions.

When did she travel to the USA? ( >> she travelled)

Where did you buy the book? (>> you bought the book) The listener perceives that the information presented is necessarily true, or intended as true by the speaker..

Structural Presupposition

it is an assumption referred to something that is not true. For example, verbs like "dream", "imagine" and "pretend" are used with the presupposition that what follows is not true.

I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I was not rich)

We imagined that we were in London. (>> We were not in London)

Non-factive presupposition

It is the assumption that what is presupposed is not only untrue, but is the opposite of what is true, or contrary to facts.

- conditional structures,

If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this. ( >> you are not my daughter) If I were rich I would buy a Ferrari (>> I’m not rich)

Counterfactual presupposition

Theories of Presupposition

Presupposition as a property of sentencesunder this view, presupposition is part of linguistic meaningtherefore, it is a “semantic” phenomenon

Presupposition as speaker beliefunder this view, a presupposition is something believed to be true

by the speaker, as part of a communicative acttherefore, it’s a “pragmatic” phenomenon

The semantic view

Essentially, tries to account for presupposition as a truth relation

p presupposes q if:when p is true, so is qwhen p is false, q is still truewhen q is true, p could be either true or false

This allows us to view presupposition on a par with other relations like entailment

Accounts for the difference between entailment and presupposition in a truth-conditional way

Presupposition:If p is false, q is still true

My wife went to Karachi presupposes I have a wifeMy wife didn’t go to Karachi still presupposes I have a

wifeEntailment:

If p is false, then the entailment falseI saw Arif this morning I saw someone this morningI didn’t see Arif this morning -/-> I saw someone this

morning.

The semantic view

Problem 1: presupposition failure Under the semantic view, we would have to say that

presupposition failure results in falsity of a sentence:

The King of France is bald.Presupposes that there is one and only one king of FranceFact: there is no King of FranceTherefore: sentence is false

We could try to analyse presupposition differently:e.g. If q is false, then p is not false, but dubious

But do we want to claim that existence and uniqueness are part of the meaning of the definite description?

Pragmatic solution to Problem 1

Under this approach, existence/uniqueness are not part of the semantics of definite (cf our earlier discussion of reference).

they are viewed as conventions on the use of such expressions:If a speaker uses a definite, this presupposes that

there is some unique entity that the listener can identify

If the convention is violated, this doesn’t render the sentence false, but infelicitous. It’s not a lack of truth, but a failure of the pragmatic conventions

Problem 2: Presupposition triggers and context

She cried before going out.Presupposes: She went out

She died before going out.Does not presuppose: She went out

If presupposition is so sensitive to context, can it be part of the expression meaning?

The pragmatic reply

Presuppositions are defensible:

They are conventionally carried by certain expressions

Speakers are conscious of the presuppositions their utterances carry

But in some contexts, they are simply defeated or cancelled

Some more on the pragmatic theory

Influential exponents include Stalnaker (1974):Suggested that when people communicate, they have a

common ground (CG)

This is a background set of assumptions that they both make, and know to be true

Presupposition works against this common ground

Felicitous use of an utterance requires that its presuppositions be commonly held by all interlocutors

Dealing with new presuppositions

It’s a fact about communication that not everything we presuppose is known to our interlocutorA: My dog died.B: Didn’t know you had one.

Ways out:we can ask for clarificationsometimes, we don’t because the presupposition is

quite clear and obviousWe just adopt it.

Accommodation

Lewis (1979) suggested that interlocutors carry out Accommodation:

If at time t something is said that presupposes p, but p is not presupposed (not in common ground), then, all other things being equal, p is introduced in the common ground.

Accommodation example

Speaker A (to B): The guy who murdered my cat was really insane.

They’ve now put him in an asylum.

Suppose B didn’t know my cat was murdered.The definite description the guy who murdered my cat

presupposes that there is one person who was the murderer of my cat

B can accommodate this, by assuming that it’s true and is now part of common ground

How to locateWhere, When & Why

ProjectionProjection problems

Location

Elements that introduce presuppositions are called

presupposition triggers

Factive verb

Shakeel regrets that she cooked the rice.

Phase change verbs

Azam stopped smoking.

It-cleft construction

It was Mohsin who chased the thief.

Pseudo-clefts

What Mphil group brought in the classroom was a bottle of Pepsi.

Presupposition triggers

Iterative adverbs

Younas had fed up to do Mphil, again.

Additive particles

Naqvi had observed the phenomenon of language, too.

Definite descriptions

My dog had the flu.

Certain quantifiers

Dr Shehzad welcomed all the delegates from Oxford University.

Presupposition triggers

Presuppositions are somehow independent of the

conventional meaning and entailments expressed by a

sentence

Can be distinguished from entailments via various

presupposition tests

All tests involve some modification of the original

sentence that changes the conventional meaning in

some respect – what is left unaffected is a candidate for

a presupposition

Presupposition Tests

NegationPresuppositions are not affected by negation

Sentential negation affects the conventional meaning (truth) of a

sentence, but leaves presuppositions untouched

e.g.

Azam did not stop smoking.

It was not Atif who ate all chocolate cookies.

My dog does not have the flu.

Presupposition Tests

ModalsPresuppositions are not affected by modals

Modals affect the modality of a sentence, i.e. its epistemic/

deontic /etc. status, but leave presupposition untouched

E.g.

Khan might regret that she cooked the rice.

Perhaps Dr. Shehzad welcomed all delegates from the Oxford

University

Presupposition Tests

QuestionsPresuppositions are not affected by question formation

Question formation affects the speech act (an assertion is

changed to a question), but leave presuppositions

untouched

e.g.

Does Shakeel regret that she cooked the rice?

Has Azam stopped smoking?

Presupposition Tests

Presupposition projection refers to the fact that larger constituents containing presupposition triggers inherit their presuppositions in certain way

Shakeel started to learn Italian.Atif hopes that Shakeel started to learn Italian.Azam hopes that Shakeel started to learn Italian and he

thinks of meeting him.All inherit the presupposition triggered by started. ButAzam claims that Shakeel started to learn Italian.If Shakeel did not learn Italian before, he started to learn

Italian.Do not presuppose that Shakeel did not learn Italian

before (the moment of utterance).

Projection

In many cases presuppositions don’t survive to become the meaning of complex sentences.

Why?

They are “destroyed” by entailments

The entailments are more powerful of presuppositions

PROJECTION PROBLEM

Examples:

The unicorn is waiting in the garden.#Yet there are no unicorns.Entailment problemPat knows that the unicorn is waiting in the garden.#Yet there are no unicorns.Again entailment problem

PROJECTION PROBLEM

An antipresupposition, like a presupposition, survives to negation….

An antipresupposition may be cancelledAn antipresupposition is triggered by a lexical

form, which is compared with a presuppositon trigger.

A. A son of Shakeel’s is intelligent.B. The son of Shakeel’s is intelligent.Scale with presupposed contents: a < theA is an antipresupposition trigger / the is a

presupposition trigger

Antipresupposition

Some sentences impose the condition that the interlocutors not take the truth of a certain proposition for granted (Percus, 2006):

Either it will have to e taken for granted that the proposition in question is false,

Or it will have to be an open issue whether the proposition is true or not.

Antipresupposition

In these cases, we might say that the sentence antipresupposes the

proposition in question.

Raheel thinks that Saba has a knowledge of cooking.

Antipresupposes via <think, know>:

Arif is repairing a chair in Azam’s living room.

Antipresupposes via <a, the>:

Azam has exactly one chair in his living room

Azhar assigned the same exercise to all of Adnan’s students.

Antipresupposes via <all, both>:

Adnan has exactly two students.

Antipresupposition