This presentation discusses presupposition in linguistics. It defines presupposition as an implicit assumption whose truth is taken for granted. There are several types of presuppositions including existential, factive, lexical, structural, non-factive, and counterfactual presuppositions. Examples are provided for each type from a short story. The presentation concludes that presuppositions are implicit assumptions speakers and listeners assume to make utterances appropriate in context.

1. Presentation No.1
Topic: Presupposition
Presented by
Ijaz Ahmed
Supervised by Dr. Iqbal Butt
Discipline: Mphil in Linguistics

2. Introduction
• Presupposition
• In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics,
a presupposition is an implicit assumption about the
world or background belief relating to an utterance
whose truth is taken for granted in discourse.
• Examples of presuppositions include:
• Have you stopped eating meat?
– Presupposition: you had once eaten meat.
• Have you talked to Hans?
– Presupposition: Hans exists.

3. Cont………..
• A presupposition must be mutually known or
assumed by the speaker and addressee for
the utterance to be considered appropriate in
context. It will generally remain a necessary
assumption whether the utterance is placed
in the form of an assertion, denial, or
question, and can be associated with a
specific lexical item or grammatical feature
(presupposition trigger) in the utterance.

4. Cont……..
• Crucially, negation of an expression
does not change its
presuppositions: I want to do it
again and I don't want to do it
again both presuppose that the
subject has done it already one or
more times

5. Cont…….
• A presupposition of a part of an
utterance is sometimes also a
presupposition of the whole
utterance, and sometimes not. For
instance, the phrase my
wife triggers the presupposition
that I have a wife.

6. Literature review
• Strawson’s view of presupposition as an
entailment that survives negation and is truth-
conditional. This approach to presupposition
was refined by Karttunon and Peters
(1979)who argues that presupposition is
conventional to the extent that it survives
negation but pragmatic to the extent that it is
non- truth -conditional

7. Literature Review
The idea that there are CONTEXTUAL
PRESUPPOSITIONS over and above SEMANTIC
PRESUPPOSITIONS has been gaining in
popularity in both linguistics and philosophy.
Some linguists and philosophers even argue
that the semantic notion of presupposition
should be abandoned in favor of the
contextual one.

8. Cont…………..
In Frege's view, the content of such
presuppositions (i.e. what properties of an
objects make them 'appropriate', or what the
requirement for success is) was something that
depended on the grammatical structure of
sentences.
“Presupposition was incorporated into semantic
theory on the hypothesis that it is one of these
further cases (Katz 1965:597-8, 1966: 211-20)”

9. Cont…………
• Further, as Katz 1972 and Karttunen
1973 observe, the presuppositions
associated with an expression in a
sentence are not, in general,
associated with the complex
sentences

10. Cont……….
• Katz & Fodor (1963:174)
• Suggested that the semantic competence of
speakers consists of whatever non- syntactic
and non-phonological information they have
about the structure of sentences when there
is no information at all about their contexts-or
• alternatively, when they occur in zero context

11. Cont…………
• This is all that Karttunen says “A
presupposition associated with the second
clause; in contrast to the situation with
conditional sentences, there is no
independent semantic property of the
sentence type which can be thought of as
providing the basis for the presupposition.”

12. Types of Presupposition
• A. Existential Presupposition
• speaker is committed to the existence of the
entities named
• the King of Sweden
• the cat
• the girl next door
• the Counting Crows
• your car
• any definite noun phrase

13. Methodology
• I have selected a short story Button,Bitton
written by Richard Mathson and tried to
analyze the presuppositions from its text

14. Example of existential presupposition
• "Maybe some eccentric millionaire is playing games with
people," she said.
• She presupposes that millionaire exists.
• "I think you'd better leave," Arthur said, standing. And take
your button unit with you."
• Presupposes that button exists.
• I assure you, the organization is of international scope."
• The speaker presupposes that an organization exists
• "I'll leave my card," said Mr. Steward. He placed it on the table
• It presupposes that card and table exist
• “

15. Factive Presupposition
• B. Factive Presupposition
• Certain verbs/construction indicate that
something is a fact
• She didn't REALIZE he was ill (>> He was ill)
• We REGRET telling him (>> We told him)
• I WASN'T AWARE that she was married (>> She
was married)
• It ISN'T ODD that he left early (>> He left early)
• I'M GLAD that it's over (>> It's over)

16. Example of factive presupposition
• "However, I assure you, the organization is of
international scope."
• Presupposes that it is an organization

17. C. Lexical Presupposition
• C. Lexical Presupposition
• The use of a form with its asserted meaning is conventionally interpreted
with the presupposition that
• another, non-asserted, meaning is understood
• He MANAGED to repair the clock ( >> he tried to repair the clock)
• Asserted meaning: he succeeded
• He didn't MANAGE to repair the clock (>> he tried to repair the clock)
• Asserted meaning: he failed
• He STOPPED smoking (>> he used to smoke)
• They STARTED complained (>> they weren't complaining before)
• You're late AGAIN (>> You were late before)

18. Example of lexical presupposition
• "I'm not selling anything," he answered.
• Presupposes he is trying to do something else
instead of selling
• She tried to smile but couldn't.
• Presupposes that she tried to smile
• Because it's immoral," he told her.
• Presupposes it is not moral

19. D. Structural Presupposition
• D. Structural Presupposition
• certain sentence structures conventionally
and regularly presuppose that part of the
structure is already assumed to be true
• Wh-questions: When did he leave? (>> he left)
• Where did you buy the bike? (>> You bought
the bike)

20. Example of structural presupposition
• "Who do you represent?" demanded Norma.
• Presupposes that he represents.
• "What are you trying to sell?" she asked.
• Presupposes that x is selling something.
• "What is that gadget, anyway?“
• Speaker presupposes that there is a device

21. E Non-factive Presupposition
• E Non-factive Presupposition
• certain verbs/constructions indicate that
something is not a fact / not true
• I DREAMED that I was rich (>> I was not rich)
• We IMAGINED we were in Hawaii (>> We were
not in Hawaii)
• He PRETENDS to be ill (>> He is not ill)

22. Example of non factive presupposition
• "Fifty thousand dollars, Arthur," Norma
interrupted. "A chance to take that trip to
Europe we've always talked about."
• Presupposes that they had not any chance to
go to Europe

23. F. Counterfactual Presupposition
• F. Counterfactual Presupposition
• Structures mean that what is presupposed is
not only not true, but is the opposite of what
is true, i.e. contrary to facts
• If you were my friend, you would have helped
me (>> You are not my friend

24. Example of counterfactual
presupposition
• "If you push the button," Mr. Steward told him,
"somewhere in the world someone you don't
know will die.
• Presuppoes that he had not pushed the button
• "If you push the button," Mr. Steward told him,
"somewhere in the world someone you don't
know will die.
• Presupposes that they had not experience of
such phenomena before.

25. SUMMARY
• Type Example Presupposition
• Existential the X >> X exists
• Factive I regret leaving >> I left
• Non-factive He pretended to be happy >> He
wasn't happy
• Lexical He managed to escape >> He tried to
escape
• Structural When did she die? >> She died
• Counterfactual If I weren't ill >> I am ill

26. Conclusion
• At the end it can be said that in the branch of
linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition is
an implicit assumption about the world or
background belief relating to an utterance whose
truth is taken for granted in discourse and
presupposition must be mutually known or
assumed by the speaker and addressee for the
utterance to be considered appropriate in context.
And it also made the writing interesting and
informative because they provide us with a chance
to peep into the deep recesses of human mind.
• .

27. References
• FREGE, G. 1892. Uber Sinn und Bedeutung. Zeitschrift fur Philosophie und Philoso-phische
Kritik 100.25-50. [In Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege, ed. bP. T.
Geach & M. Black, 68-74. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1952.]
• KARTTUNEN, L. 1973. Presuppositions of compound sentences. Linguistic Inquiry 4.
• 169-93.
• KATZ, J. J. 1965. The relevance of linguistics to philosophy. Journal of Philosophy 62.590-601.
• Strawson, P.F. 1950: On referring. Mind 59, 320-44.