Pragmatic presupposition.pptVIP

Pragmatic presupposition 1 Entailment and presupposition 2 Semantic presupposition and its triggers 3 The pragmatic nature of presupposition (1): 3.1 It is related to felicity conditions of utterances; 3.2 It is used as shared knowledge or common ground 4 The pragmatic nature of presupposition (2) 4.1 It can be cancelled or defeated by context 4.2 It has projection problems 1. Entailment and presupposition Which entails which and presupposes which? a. My brother is a linguist. b. I have a brother. c. I have a sibling. Their difference: Constancy under negation test Their commonalities: Both are information not stated but communicated. Both require inferring. Sentences or propositions, not speakers, contain semantic entailments and communicate semantic presuppositions. 2. Semantic presupposition and its triggers Semantic presupposition is related to linguistic forms, and the truth value conditions of a proposition: 张三演奏小提琴。（*小提琴演奏张三） 王五（*意外地）暗杀了李四。 小刘的所有论文都写完了。（*All his hands became swollen） Harry accused Mary of breaking the vase. At that time enthusiasm for the Emperor Alexanders regime had weakened and a patriotic and anti-French tendency prevailed there, and this, together with his past and his intellect and his originality, at once made Prince Nicholas Bolkonski an object of particular respect to the Moscovites and the center of the Moscow opposition to the government. War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo (Semantic) presupposition triggers: Definite descriptions My boyfriend is (isn’t) a rich man. ? Factive predicates John realized/knew/regretted (didn’t realize) that he had made a mistake. ? I’m glad/aware/sorry/proud (am not glad/…) that you have come. ? It’s strange / significant (not strange…) that he has been found guilty. ? Implicative verbs He managed (didn’t manage) to pass the exam. ? I forgot (didn’t forget) to bring the book. ? He avoided (didn’t avoid) meeting her in the office. ? We happened to meet our neighbor in the cinema. ? (Se