2. Presupposition is a background belief,
mutually assumed by the speaker and the
addressee for the utterance to be considered
appropriate in context.
Presupposition is denoted by a symbol “>>”.
3. According to Merriam-Webster “Student
Dictionary”:
“to presuppose means to suppose beforehand
or to require as an antecedent”.
“presupposition is something the speaker
assumed to be case prior of making
utterance”.
Yule (1996:25)
4. “The information that speaker assumes to be
already known”
(The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
1987)
5. Mary has stopped beating her boyfriend
Mary has been beating her boyfriend
John returned to Cambridge
John has been to Cambridge before
6. The concept of presupposition is often treated as the relationship
between two propositions. If we say that the sentence (a)
contains preposition p and the sentence (b) contains the
preposition q, then using the symbol >> to mean ‘pre-supposes’,
we can represent the relationship as in sentence (c).
(1)
(a) If I were Superman, I would be bulletproof = p
(b) I am not Superman = q
(c) p>>q
7. If we say that the sentence (1a) contains
preposition p and the sentence (2a) contains
the preposition q, then using the symbol >>
to mean ‘pre-supposes’, we can represent
the relationship as in sentence (1c).
(a) If I were Superman, I would be bulletproof
= p
(b) I am not Superman = q
(c) P>>q
8. Interestingly when we produce the opposite of
the sentence in (1a) by negating it
(=NOT p), as in the sentence below, we find
that the relationship of presupposition does
not change.
(1)
(a) If I were Superman, I would not be
bulletproof= (NOT p)
(b) I am not Superman = q
(c) P>>q
9. It has been explained that presupposition is
something the speaker assumes to be case
prior of making utterances. He also stated
that:
“ presupposition has been associated with the
use of a large number of words, phrases, and
structure”
(Yule, 1996: 27)
11. Yule described:
“A potential presupposition is an assumption
typically associated with the use of a
linguistic form (words, phrases, structure)”
(1996:27)
He divided potential presupposition into six
categories.
12. In existential presupposition entities named by
the speaker are assumed to be present.
And it is the assumption of the existence of
the entities named by the speaker.
It consist of :
Noun phrase Possessive
constructions
13. Examples (Noun Phrase):
“The Cold War has ended”
Presupposes that the existence of the entities it
refers to, in this case the "Cold War“.
“The Car was broken”
Presupposes that the existence of the entities it
refers to, in this case the “Car".
14. Examples (Possessive constructions)
"Tom’s car is new”
We can presuppose that Tom exists and that
he has a car.
“Your Book is new”
We can presuppose that You exist and that you
have a book.
15. It is the assumption that is true and can
identify by some verbs such as ‘know’,
‘realize’, ‘ regret’, ‘be’, ‘ aware’, ‘odd’, and
’ glad’.
16. Michael didn’t realize that Daniel was wrong
(>> Daniel was wrong)
Daniel regrets telling us
(>>Daniel told us)
Bob is glad that is over
(>> It is over)
17. Lexical Presupposition is defined as:
“using one word, the speaker can act as if
another meaning will be understood”
18. He stopped smoking
(>> he used to smoke)
They start complaining
(>> they weren’t complaining before)
You’re late again
(>> you are late before)
19. It is the assumption associated with the use of
certain structures.
Wh-question constructions.
The listener perceives that the information
presented is necessarily true, or intended as
true by the speaker..
20. When did he leave?
(>> he left)
Where did you buy the bike?
(>> you bought the bike)
21. It is the assumption that is assumed not to be
true and which is identified by presence of
some verb such as ‘dream’, ‘image’,
‘pretend’. Those are used with
presupposition that what is not true.
22. I dream that I was rich
(>> I was not rich)
We imagine that we were in Hawaii
(>> you are not in Hawaii)
He pretends to be ill
(>> he is not ill)
23. It is the assumption that what is presupposed
is not only untrue, but is the opposite of
what is true, or contrary to facts.
For instance, some conditional structures,
generally called counterfactual conditionals,
presuppose that the information, in the if-
clauses, is not true at the time of utterance.
24. If you are my friend, you would have helped
me
(>> you are not my friend)
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)
25. According to Yule projection problem of
presupposition of a simple structure not
surviving when part of more complex
sentence in this case the meaning of some
presuppositions (as parts) doesn’t survive to
become the meaning of some complex
sentences (as wholes).
26. a) Nobody realize that john was sad.
b) I imagined that john was sad.
c) I imagined that john was sad and nobody
realized that he was sad.
27. Through these examples, we can observe that,
when the speakers utters (a), we can
presuppose that she was sad, and when the
speaker utters (b), we can presuppose that
she was not sad. However, when the speaker
utters (c), we can’t understand what the
speaker means by that utterance, because
there is no a context because both have
opposite meaning and we can not imagine
context in which it might be true.
