Presuppositions

Prepared for
Madam Zailani bt Jusoh
DEFINITION OF
PRESUPPOSITION

Implicit assumption about the world or

background belief relating to an utterance
whose truth is taken for granted in discourse
Something that the speaker assumes to be the
case prior to make an utterance
EXAMPLES

Mary’s brother bought three horses.

Presuppositions :
1. Mary exists.
2. Mary has brothers.
3. Mary only has one brother.
4. Mary’s brother is really rich.
EXAMPLE
Pali is the new
Falcom president.

Imran is a widower.

Fatin got a new sister.

 TYPES OF PRESUPPOSITION
Overall there are 6 types of presupposition which is :
• Existential presupposition
• Factive presupposition
• Lexical presupposition
• Non-factive presupposition
• Structural presupposition
• Counterfactual presupposition
EXISTENTIAL PRESUPPOSITION

It is the assumption of the existence of the entities named by

the speaker.

The audience who never see or heard about the existence of

the specific thing will be convinced by the speaker’s sentence

For example, when a speaker says “taylor’s car is new",

We can presuppose that a girl named taylor exists and that she
has a car.
FACTIVE PRESUPPOSITION
• It is an assumption that something is true due to the
presence of some verbs such as "know" and "realize" and
of phrases involving glad,

• For example. when a speaker says that he didn’t realize

someone is sick , we can presuppose that someone is
currently having a sickness.

• Also, when the speaker says "I’m glad it’s done”, we can
presuppose that something has been done by the speaker
NON-FACTIVE PRESUPPOSITION
• It is an assumption that something is not true or
imaginable.
• For example, verbs like "dream", "imagine" and
"pretend" are used with the presupposition that
what follows is not true.
Examples
a) I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I am not rich)
b) We imagined that we were in Los Angeles. (>> We
are not in Los Angeles)
c) I dream of flying (>> we cant fly <<)
LEXICAL PRESUPPOSITION

• It is the assumption that, in using one word, the speaker can

act as if another meaning (word) will be understood.
Examples
a) Erpow stopped running. (>>He used to run.)
b) Haziq are late again. (>> Haziq were late before)
• In this case, the use of the expressions "stop" and "again"
are taken to presuppose another (unstated) concept.
STRUCTURAL PRESUPPOSITION

• It is the assumption associated with the use of certain words and

phrases.
• For example, wh-question in English are conventionally
interpreted with the presupposition that the information after the
wh-form is already known to be the case.
Examples
a) When did he travel to the Bangladesh? ( >> he traveled)
b) Where did you buy the laptop? (>> you bought the laptop)
• The listener perceives that the information presented is
necessarily true rather than just the presupposition of the person
asking the question.
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.
Examples
a) If you were my son, I would not allow you to do this. ( > you
are not my son)
b) If I had enough money, I would buy that wallet. (> I do not
have enough money)
 PROJECTION PROBLEM OF
PRESUPPOSITIONS
The projection problem is the problem of predicting the presuppositions of complex sentences in a
compositional fashion from the presuppositions of their parts

Example 1
a) Kepler died in misery
b) If Kepler existed, then Kepler died in misery

Example 2
a) All of Jack’s children are bald
b) If Jack has children, then all of Jack’s children are bald
c) If it’s true that Jack has children , then all of Jack’s children are bald
 ENTAILMENT
• In semantics, entailment is the principle
that under certain conditions the truth of
one statement.
• Ensures the truth of a second statement.
• It refers to the recognition of the shared,
presupposed knowledge.
• All utterances are based on certain
entailments.
Examples

“Alan lives in Toronto.” “Alan lives in Canada.”

[O]ne statement entails another when the second is a logically necessary

consequence of the first, as Alan lives in Toronto entails Alan lives in Canada. Note
that the relationship of entailment, unlike that of paraphrase, is one-way: it is not
the case that Alan lives in Canada entails Alan lives in Toronto."
 Wrap Up!

• Semantics entailment is all about

determining meaning.
• To see whether it entails that of another or
whether they have the same meaning .
• a fundamental problem in natural language
understanding that requires the ability to
extract over the inherent syntactic and
semantic variability in natural language.
 ENTAILMENT VS PRESUPPOSITION
Presupposition Differences Entailment
Is an assumption a speaker Definitions Is the relation between
makes prior to the utterances sentences or propositions
Speakers have presuppositions Sentences have entailment
Example Example

The negation of the first The negation of the first

utterance may not affect the sentence will affect the truth of
second sentence. the second sentence.
1. Her car is new. Speakers vs Sentences 1. The king was assassinated.
She has a car. The king died.

2. Negation: Her car is new. 2. Negation: The king was not

She has a car.→ presupposition assassinated.
is not changed. The king died. → not true.
THANK YOU