Presupposition

pragmatics

1. presuppositions Aemen Murtaza Roll Number 10

2. Presupposition: 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. Definition: 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. Definitions: “The information that speaker assumes to be already known” (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language 1987)

5. Example: Mary has stopped beating her boyfriend Mary has been beating her boyfriend John returned to Cambridge John has been to Cambridge before

6. Constancy under negation: 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) If I were Superman, I would be bulletproof = p 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). If I were Superman, I would be bulletproof = p I am not Superman = q 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) If I were Superman, I would not be bulletproof= (NOT p) I am not Superman = q P>>q

9. Types of presuppositions: 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)

10. Types of presuppositions: Potential presupposition Existential presupposition Factive presupposition Lexical presupposition Structural presupposition Non- factive presupposition Counter factual presupposition

11. Potential presupposition 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. Existential Presupposition 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. For example: 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. For example: 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. Factive Presupposition It is the assumption that is true and can identify by some verbs such as ‘know’, ‘realize’, ‘ regret’, ‘be’, ‘ aware’, ‘odd’, and ’ glad’.

16. For example: 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 Lexical Presupposition is defined as: “using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning will be understood”

18. For example: He stopped smoking (>> he used to smoke) They start complaining (>> they weren’t complaining before) You’re late again (>> you are late before)

19. structural Presupposition 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. For example: When did he leave? (>> he left) Where did you buy the bike? (>> you bought the bike)

21. Non- Factive Presupposition 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. For example: 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. Counterfactual Presupposition  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. For example: 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. The projection problem: 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. For example: Nobody realize that john was sad. I imagined that john was sad. I imagined that john was sad and nobody realized that he was sad.

27. The projection problem: 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.

28. THE END