Second Group

By:
 Sanita Lensiana
 Serly Pebriani
 Suria Astuti
 6 Types of presupposition:
1. Existensial Presupposition
2. Factive Presupposition
Presupposition 3. Lexical Presupposition
4. Structural Presupposition
5. non-factive Presupposition

6. counter-factual Presupposition

Entailments
Presupposition NEXT

 A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be

the case prior to make an utterance.

Example:
 If someone tells you:
-“Your brother is waiting outside for you”

There is an obvious supposition that you have brother.

-Jane’s brother bought two apartments.

This sentence presupposes that Jane exists and that she has a
brother. The speaker may also hold the more specific
presupposition that she has only a brother and her brother has a lot
of money. All these presuppositions are held by the speaker and all
of them can be wrong.
 Presupposition triggers
In any language, there are some expressions or constructions which can act
as the sources of presuppositions. This kind of expression or construction is
called presupposition triggers.
Examples:
1. Definitive descriptions
 John saw the man with two heads >> There exists a man with two heads.
2. Factive verbs
 John realized that he was in debt >> John was in debt.
3. Change of state verbs
 Joan began to beat her husband >> Joan hadn’t been beating her
husband.
4. Iterative
 The flying saucer came again >> The flying saucer came before.
5. Temporal clauses
 While Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics, the rest of social science
asleep >> Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics.
6. Cleft sentences
 It was Henry who killed Rose >> Someone killed Rose.
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7. Comparisons and contrasts
 Carol is better linguist than Barbara >> Barbara is a linguist.
.
The relationship between two propositions:
 Mary’s cat is cute. (p)
 Mary has a cat. (q)
p >> q = p presupposes q

If the speaker denies the proposition p (NOT p), the presupposition

q doesn’t change.

 Mary’s cat isn’t cute. (NOT p)

 Mary has a cat. (q)
Not p >> q = not p presuppose q

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1. Existential Presupposition
Entities named by the speaker and assumed to be present.

-noun phrase
Example: “The Cold War has ended”

Presupposes that the existence of the entities it refers to,

in this case the “Cold War”.

-Possessive construction
example: when a speaker says “Tom’s car is new”

We can presuppose that Tom exists and that he has a car.

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2. Factive Presupposition
Identified by the presence of some verbs such as “know”, “realize”, “be
glad”, “be sorry”, etc.

Example:
1. She didn’t realize he was ill. (>> he was ill)
2. We regret telling him. (>> we told him)
3. I wasn’t aware that she was married. (>> she was married)
4. It isn’t odd that he left early. (>>he left early)
5. I’m glad that it’s over (>> it’s over)

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3. Lexical Presupposition
In using one word, the speaker can act as if another meaning will be
understood. For instance:

1. Andrew stopped running. (>> he used to run)

2. You are late again. (>>you were late before)
3. Are you still such a bad driver? (>> you were a bad driver)

“stop”, “again”, “still” are taken to presuppose another (unstated)

concept.

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4. Strctural presupposition
It is the assumption associated with the use of certain
structures.
-WH-question constructions.
 When did she travel to the USA? (>>she travelled)
 Where did you buy the book? (>>you bought the book)

The listener percieves that the information presented is

necessarily true, or intended as true by the speaker.

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5. Non-factive Presupposition
It is in an assumption referred to something that is not true.

Example: verbs like “dream”, “imagine” and “pretend” are used

with the presupposition that what follows is not true.
1. I dreamed that I was rich. (>>I was not rich)
2. We imagined that we were in London. (>> we were not in
London)

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6. 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.
-conditional structures:
1. If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this.
(>> you are not my daughter)
2. If I were rich I would buy a ferrari. (>> I’m not rich)

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Entailments
 A relationship that applies between two sentence/propositions, where
the truth of one implies the truth of the other because of the meaning of
the words involved.

Example:
A: everyone passed the examination.
B: no-one failed the examination.
A entails B
 Whenever A is true, B is true.
 The information that B contains is contained in the information that A
conveys.
 A situation describable by A must also be a situation describable by B.
 A and NOT B are contradictory.

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Susan’s sister bought two houses.

This sentence presupposes that Susan exists and that she has sister.
This sentence has the Susan’s sister bought something; a house, and
other similar logical consequences, now she has 2 houses. The
entailments are communicated without being said and are not
dependent on the speaker’s intention.

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Characteristic of entailments
 Logical consequences following from what is asserted in the
utterance.
 Entailments depend on sentence meaning , not the context
in which the sentence is used.
 Entailment also happens when one set of objects is included
in another. It may be seen as a kind of hyponymic relation.
 Entailments can also involves the use of determines. This is
simply the relation of inclusion.
e.g. every student loves learning English
=> most students love learning English.

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Ordered entailments
Entailment is not pragmatic concept (i.e. having to do with the
speaker meaning), but it is considered a purely logical concept,
symbolized by
1. Bob ate three sandwiches.
 Someone ate three sandwiches. ( who ate the sandwiches )
 Bob did something to three sandwiches. ( what Bob did )
 Bob ate three of something. ( what Bob ate )
 Something happened. ( what happened )
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