2. DEFINING PRESUPPOSITION
Presupposition: The information that a speaker assumes to be
already known. (The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language, 1987)
Ex: "The Cold War has ended" presupposes that the existence of the entities it
refers to, in this case the "Cold War".
Presupposition is condition that we need for the true or false a sentence.
Type of relation :
X entails Y
X : He married a blonde heiress
Y : He married a blonde.
X presupposes Y
X : The girl he married was an heiress.
Y : He married a girl.
X implicates Y
X : Few men marry blonde heiress.
Y : Some men marry blonde heiress.
3. The relationship between two propositions.
- Mary’s cat is cute. (p)
- Mary has a cat. (q)
p >>q = p presupposes q
If the speaker denies the proposition p (NOT p), the presupposition
q doesn’t change.
- Mary’s cat isn’t cute. (NOT p)
- Mary has a cat. (q)
Not p >>q = Not p presupposes q
Type of Presuppositions
1) Existential presupposition:
2) Factive presupposition:
3) Lexical presupposition:
4) Structural presupposition:
5) Non- factive presupposition:
6) Counterfactual presupposition:
4. DEFINING ENTAILMENT
Entailment is not a pragmatic concept. It is defined as what logically
follows from what is asserted in the utterance.
Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments.
Example:
Susan’s sister bought two houses.
This sentence presupposes that Susan exists and that she has a
sister.
This sentence has the entailments that Susan’s sister bought
something; now she has 2 houses, a house, and other similar
logical consequences. The entailments are communicated without
being said and are not dependent on the speaker’s intention.
5. PRESUPPOSITIONS VS. ENTAILMENTS
Utterances and their presuppositions.
She has stopped smoking.
Presupposes: She used to smoke.
My dog ate my bag.
Presupposes: I have a dog, and I have (had) a bag.
Utterances and their entailments.
The emperor was assassinated
Entails:
1) Someone was assassinated.
2) The emperor died.
6. Presuppositions are different from entailments.
1) She hasn’t stopped smoking.
Still presupposes: She used to smoke.
2) My dog didn’t eat my bag.
Still presupposes: I have a dog, and I (still, it seems) have a bag.
While
The emperor wasn’t assassinated.
Does not entail any more
1) Someone was assassinated.
2) The emperor died.
