Presupposition
Presupposition
Presupposition
2. Strawson's approach: Both "my wife is pregnant" and "my wife is not
pregnant" as a wrong presupposition (i.e. That there exists
a referent which can be described with the noun phrase my wife)
and therefore cannot be assigned truth values.
Bertrand Russell tries to solve this dilemma with two interpretations of the
negated sentence:
1. "There exists exactly one person, who is my wife and who is not
pregnant"
2. "There does not exist exactly one person, who is my wife and who is
pregnant."
For the first phrase, Russell would claim that it is false, whereas the
second would be true according to him.
Projection of presupposition
Presupposition triggers
Definite descriptions
Some further change of state verbs: start; finish; carry on; cease;
take (as in X took Y from Z Y was at/in/with Z); leave; enter;
come; go; arrive; etc.
Iteratives
Churchill died.
Cleft sentences
Barbara is a linguist.
Counterfactual conditionals
Possessive case
Accommodation of presuppositions