Pressupositions

Question 1

define a presupposition

Answer 1

an implicit assumption about a world relating to an utterance

Presupposition is what the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance.

Question 2

presupposition qualities

Answer 2

what speaker assumes to be true

halfway between semantics/pragmatics

pre-condition for sentence to make sense

linked to interpretation of language and can be inferred form little context

Question 3

what types of sentences are there

Answer 3

declative, interrogative, imperative

Question 4

difference betwen pressuposition and entailment?

Answer 4

Speakers have presuppositions while sentences, not speakers, have entailments.

Presuppositions can exist with all sorts of utterance
types (questions, commands, statements,
performatives)

but

entailments exist only with utterances that express
propositions.

Question 5

what is the pressuposition in:

‘Jane no longer writes fiction.’

Answer 5

Presupposition: Jane once wrote fiction

Question 6

what is the negation test

Answer 6

entailments are cancelled; pressupositions remain as they are the established truths/constants:

‘this did not happen…”

i.e. “Mary knows John is a cook” and “Mary does not know John is a cook”= john is still a cook

Question 7

what is an existencial pressupotion

Answer 7

most basic: ‘x has y’

–> the, that, this, those and possessives (my/yours/annie’s)

Question 8

application of pressupositions?

Answer 8

advertising and court: persausiave language and making indrect assertions/assumptions using wat/how words

Question 9

pressuposition triggers

Answer 9

1. definitive descriptions: john saw the man
2. change of state verbs: john stopped painting
3. iterative: the car came again
4. factive verbs: “i know that/I’m proud that, etc. She regrets breaking it…”