Presuppositions

Presuppositions are implicit meanings subsumed by a particular wording in the sense that the interpretation of the latter is conditional upon the tacit acceptance of these implicit meanings.  A presupposition is always assumed to be true

                   Your brother is waiting for you ---- By saying your brother you presuppose that the person

                                                                                  to whom you talk has a brother

                  Mary’s cat is cute ---------- Presupposes that Mary has a cat

                 The King of France has red hair ------ Presupposes that France has a king

                 The Cold War has ended ------------- Presupposes the existence of the entity “Cold War”

The study of presuppositions deals more with meanings which are taken for granted------------ research on language audiology. Presupposition is what the speaker assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance. While entailment (which is not a pragmatic concept) is what logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance. Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments. Fro instance: Emily’s sister bought two cars --- This presupposes that Emily exists, she is alive, she has a sister, and even that she may have only one sister, and that she is a rich. However, all these presuppositions can be WRONG.

But for entailments: The President was assassinated------ entails the President is dead

We can say that entailment is the relationship between sentences where the truth of requires the truth of the other. Entailments are communicated without being said, and are not dependent on the speaker’s intentions. 

TYPES OF PRESUPPOSITIONS

1-      Existential Presuppositions: Assumption of the EXISTENCE of the entities named by the speaker For instance: Tom’s car is new   ---Tom exists    Tom has a car

2-      Factive Presuppositions: Assumption that something is true due to the presence of some verbs like “know”, “realize”: She didn’t realize she was ill ------ Someone “HE” was ill

                                                    I am glad it’s over --------- I is over

3-      Lexical Presuppositions: Assumption that in using one word, the speaker can act as if  another meaning (word) will ,be understood: Andrew stopped running ----He used to run

                                                                                    You are late again ------ You were late before

4-      Structural Presuppositions: It  is the assumption associated with use of certain words, structures, phrases, wh questions: When did you travel to the USA? ---- She travelled

                                                                When did you buy the book? -------- You bought the book

5-      Non-factive Presuppositions: Assumptions that something is not true(verbs like dream, imagine, pretend): I dreamed that I was rich ---- I am not rich

                                    I imagined us in London -----We are not in London

6-      Counterfactual Presuppositions: Assumptions that what is presupposed in NOT ONLY untrue, but the OPPOSITE of what is true, contrary to facts: (Conditional structures) If you were my sister, I would not allow you to do this ---------- You are not my sister

Why presuppositions matter in pragmatics

In Yule’s framework, presuppositions are important because they show how speakers manage common ground:

  • Speakers package information as background (presupposed) versus foreground (asserted).

  • Presuppositions can be used strategically to make content appear already agreed upon.

Example

  • “Have you stopped missing deadlines?”
    Presupposition: You have been missing deadlines (presented as taken for granted).