1、a,1,Pragmatic Presupposition,Page 2,Does he lie?,Boss: If you want to work here, young man, you must know we require cleanliness. Did you remember to wipe your feet on the mat? Man: Oh yes, sir! Boss: And another thing; we require truthfulness. There is no mat!,Page 3,1 Definetion 1.1 The philosophi

2、cal tradition 1.2 The pragmatic definition 1.1.1 abroad studies 1.1.2 domestic studies 2 Properties of Pragmatic Presupposition 2.1Mutual Knowledge 2.2 Appropriateness 2.3 Defeasibility 2.4 Additivity 3 Presupposition triggers,contents,Page 4,4 Types of presuposition 4.1 Potential presupposition vs.

3、 existential presupposition 4.2 Factive presupposition vs. non-factive presupposition 4.3 Lexical presupposition vs. structural presupposition 5 Function of Pragmatic Presupposition 6 The projection probem 7 Conclusion 8 Bibliography,Page 5,1.1 The philosophical tradition,Gottlob Frege, the first ph

4、ilosopher who brought presupposition to the notice of the scholarly world, published an article On Sense and Reference in 1892. He went on to examine the sense and reference of sentences. If anything is asserted there is always an obvious presupposition that the simple or compound proper names used

5、have a reference. For example: John works very hard. It presupposes that there must be someone called John.,1 Definetion,Page 6,Frege thus sketches a theory of presupposition with the following presuppositions: (i)Referring phrases and temporal clauses carry presuppositions to the effeet that they d

6、o in fact refer; (ii)A sentence and its negative counterpart share the same set of presuppositions; (iii)In order for an assertion or a sentence to be either true or false,its presuppositions must be true or satisfied. (Frege,1952:69),Page 7,Stalnaker first proposed the concept of pragmatic presuppo

7、sition.He believes that pragmatic presupposition is not only related to the context, but also related to the propositional attitude of speaker. A proposition P is a pragmatic presupposition of a speaker in a given context just in case the speaker assumes or believes that P, assumes or believes that

8、his addressee assumes or believes that P, and assumes or believes his addressee recognizes that he is making these assumptions, or has these beliefs.” (Stalnaker,1974) Therefore, pragmatic presupposition is actually a judgment or assumption of the knowledge of the hearer from the speaker, which is t

9、he fact that the speaker thinks right or the hearer ought to accept.,1.2 The pragmatic definition,1.1.1 Abroad studies,Page 8,Pragmatic presupposition is like appropriate conditions that the effective implement of a speech act must satisfy or a sentence must satisfy for the purpose of the necessary

10、social appropriateness. It is a certain condition that is triggered by a sentence, whose responsibility is to effectively implement an illocutionary act. (Fillmore ,1971) Pragmatic presupposition is the relationship between a speaker and the appropriateness of a sentence in context. In his opinion,

11、pragmatic presupposition is not studied on the sentence level, but on the communicational level of the speaker and the hearer. (Keenan ,1971),Page 9,Presupposition of the utterance is used to indicate the common knowledge of the speaker and the hearer. When the speaker makes an utterance and the hea

12、rer understands it in a certain context, they must own some common knowledge. (Jackendoff,1972) e.g. John has a sister. The common knowledge of the communicators is that John exists. The speakers saying and the hearers understanding of the utterance are all based upon the common knowledge, which is

13、viewed as pragmatic presupposition.,Page 10,Presupposition concerning the baekground assumption made in the Proeess of communieation is a highly technieal subject. (LeoHickey Pragmatic presupposition is common knowledge shared by the two sides in specific communicative environment; Pragmatic presupp

14、osition is the condition that enables a statement to be appropriate in the process of communication.,1.1.2 Domestic studies,Page 15,All in all,linguists have different view on the definition of presupposition, but till today, they have not reached a consensus. Here is a definition from Longman Dicti

15、onary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2009:536): Presupposition is what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message already knows. For example: Speaker A: What about inviting John tonight? Speaker B: What a good idea; then he can give Mary a lift.,Page 16,2 Properties

16、of Pragmatic Presupposition,Since pragmatic presupposition rooted itself in linguistics, many linguists have been working to explain it thoroughly. As to the features of it, professor He Ziran(1988) made his efforts to tell that there arefour major properties to pragmatic presupposition: 2.1Mutual K

17、nowledge 2.2 Appropriateness 2.3 Defeasibility 2.4 Additivity,Page 17,2.1 Mutual Knowledge,Mutual knowledge is a property of pragmatic presupposition, which holds that presupposition refers to the information that both parties of communication know. There are three cases of mutual knowledge. First,

18、presupposition is the information mutually known by communicative parties or average people, which is closely connected with the context. Second, mutual knowledge is implied in the speakers utterances and then can be understood by the hearer. Third, sometimes mutual knowledge only refers to the thin

19、gs mutually known by communicative parties, so the third party may not really understand the content of discourse if he or she doesnt know the presupposition and just relies on the context. (He Ziran, 1988:138),Page 18,The following is an example which communicative parties lack the mutual knowledge

20、 of presupposition: E.G. Priya: I want to catch up with all of you, but first I really must visit the loo. Leonard: Im going, too. Ill show you where it is. Rajesh: All right, this goes without saying, but Im just going to say it anyway. Hands off my sister. Sheldon: Why would I touch her? Shes cove

21、red with air plane germs.(Laughter) (Episode 6, Season 4, The Big Bang Theory),Page 19,In this conversation, Rajesh warns his friends not to touch his sister for fear that they will fall in love with his sister. However, Sheldon has a different presupposition of “hands off” with Rajesh. He does not

22、presuppose “Hands off my sister” as “not to fall in love with Rajeshs sister”. According to the plot, it is well-known that Sheldon is a total clean freak and hasnt any interest in getting a girlfriend. For this reason, Sheldon cant reach an agreement with Rajesh on the exact meaning of “hands off m

23、y sister”. They lack the mutual knowledge of presupposition.,Page 20,E.G. (Scene: When Penny knew that Sheldon got fired, she wants to comfort him.) Penny: Well, maybe its all for the best. You know, I always say when one doorcloses, another one opens. Sheldon: No, it doesnt. Not unless the two door

24、s are connected by relays or there are motion sensors involved. Penny: No, no, I meant. Sheldon: Or if the first door closing creates a change of air pressure that acts upon the second door. (Laughter) Penny: Never mind. (Episode 4, Season 1, The Big Bang Theory),Page 21,Here Sheldon cancels the app

25、ropriateness of presupposition accidentally again. On his own side, Sheldon falsely presupposes “when one door closes, anther one opens” as a physical phenomenon. According to the context and background knowledge, the audience can easily understand that what Penny utters is not a physical phenomenon

26、 but a proverb. Sheldon does not take the contextual factors and background knowledge into account, and does not perceive that Penny is comforting him for his unemployment. Sheldon is a physicist whose mind is full of physical theories. It is very natural for him to neglect the contextual factors an

27、d background knowledge and presuppose“when one door closes, anther one opens” as a physical phenomenon.,Page 22,2.2 Appropriateness,The appropriateness of presupposition means only when presupposition is appropriate can verbal communication go smoothly. Presupposition can be objective facts or the t

28、hings that the speaker views as facts in his mind or assumptions. (He Ziran, 1988: 100) In other words, presuppositions are communicative parties attitudes and their understandings of a proposition or an utterance. Therefore,presupposition itself does not have to be true or correct since it is subje

29、ctive. (HeZiran, 1988: 126) Appropriateness also means that presupposition must be closely associated with context and it is the precondition of speech acts.,Page 23,2.3 Defeasibility,The defeasibility of presupposition refers to the fact that presupposition will disappear with the change of the utt

30、erance or the context. He Zhaoxiong (1989) holds that defeasibility is the common feature of pragmatic inference since context is a significant factor in pragmatic studies. Certain language structures can generate presupposition, but the repulsion between background information, the specific context

31、 and speech contents will give rise to the disappearance of presupposition.,Page 24,E.G. Leonard: Well, Ive dated plenty of women. There was Joyce Kim Leslie Winkle Sheldon: Notify the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. The word “plenty” has been redefined to mean “two”. (Laughter) (Episode 2

32、, Season 2, The Big Bang Theory),Page 25,In this scene, Leonard considers that he has dated plenty of women and he is charming for women. But actually he has dated only two women. His utterance presupposes that “plenty” means “two”. The reason why Leonard said so is that he persistently thinks that

33、he is popular with women. Leonards intentional cancellation of the appropriateness of presuppositions is a way for him to cheat himself and achieve self-esteem. On the other hand, Sheldon knows what Leonard means, but in order to refute the aggressive Leonard, he pretends not to perceive the contrad

34、iction in Leonards utterance and accepts the literal meaning of Leonards utterance. Sheldon cancels the appropriateness of presupposition intentionally out of certain purpose, i.e. satirizing Leonards self-esteem.,Page 26,2.4 Additivity,The additivity of presupposition means that presupposition can

35、be added by the speaker through providing supplementary information in his or her following utterance. As mentioned above, presupposition is common knowledge held by communicative parties and is also a necessary precondition that should be met so as to make the communication go smoothly. When commun

36、icative parties lack of common knowledge, it is liable that the communication will break off. At this time, communicatiuhve parties can add presupposition to make up the front information gap through providing more supplementary information and tell the truth.,Page 27,Penny: Okay, its done. Look, gu

37、ys, for the future. I dont mind killing the big spiders. But you have to at least try with the little ones. Sheldon: Penny, please. Were facing a far more serious problem than stray arachnids. Leonard: Sheldon, its not that bad. Sheldon: Not bad? Its horrible. I mean, you hear stories about this sor

38、t of thing. But you never think itll happen to you. Leonard: So they steamed your dumplings. Get over it. (Laughter) (Episode 19, Season 2, The Big Bang Theory),Page 28,In this scene, Penny helps Sheldon and Leonard kill the big spiders. Penny tells these guys that she doesnt mind killing the big sp

39、iders but they should try to kill the little ones. Sheldon utters that they are facing a more serious problem than the big spiders. The presupposition of Sheldons utterance is that there is a more serious problem than the big spiders.Sheldons friend Leonard does not refute Sheldons utterance immedia

40、tely but gives him some hints that the problem is not that bad. However, Sheldon goes on exaggerating the seriousness of the problem. Therefore, Leonard adds some information to reveal the truth: the problem Sheldon refers to is that his friends steamed his dumplings.Through using the additivity of

41、the presupposition, Leonard achieves his aim, i.e. ridiculing and bantering Sheldon.,Page 29,3 Presupposition triggers,In the analysis of how speakers assumptions are typically expressed, presupposition has been associated with the use of a large number of words, phrases, and structures, known as pr

42、esupposition-triggers. In his Pragmatics , Stephen C. Levinson on the basis of Karttunen (31 types) lists 13 types of them, which he regards as the set of core phenomena, reproduced here with simplification and some other modifications.,Stephen C. Levinson is an influential social scientist,known fo

43、r his studies of the relations between culture, language and cognition.Levinson was one of the driving forces behind a re-evaluation of the notion of linguistic relativity in the early nineties.,Page 30,Mr. He classified presupposition into three group in his Pragmatics and English Study (1997),(the

44、 symbol “” means “presuppose” , the italicized words means presupposition triggers) . A:verbs (implicative verbs, factive verbs); B:commentary adjectives and adverbs, change-of-state verbs, verbs of judging,definitive verbs; C: phrases or clauses (conditional clauses, infinite clauses, questions).,P

45、age 31,A: 1. Factive verbs (實情動詞) -sth. has happened.regret, realize, know, be odd, be strange, be proud/ pleased/ disappointed/ aware/ sorry/glad that etc. e.g. Im sorry that your dog died. Your dog died. 2.Implicative verbs(含蓄動詞)-containing two meaningsmanage, forget,happen e.g. I forget to bring

46、the book. I ought to have brought the book. (He Ziran,1997),Page 32,B: 3. Definite descriptions the,this/ that + NP, the 3rd person pronoun, possessive + n etc. e.g. Johns wife is a school teacher. John has a wife. 4. Change of state verbs(表示狀態(tài)改變的動詞) finish, stop, begin, start, carry on, continue, c

47、ease, leave, arrive, enter, come, go, turn etc. e.g. The guests arrived at 6. The guests were not here before 6. 5. Iteratives (表反復的詞語)-repetition mutual background and implicitness of pragmatic presupposition make sure that both the speaker and the listener have concise but enough information.,Page

48、 45,For example: a) Give me the book please. b) I want a book. You know which book I am referring to and you have the ability to take it and bring it to me. You are will to help me, so please give the book to me. Utterance a) is brief but has enough information, so the speaker can achieve his or her

49、 conversation purpose; otherwise, the speaker of utterance b) can also achieve the same purpose, it is rather wordy and redundant. In fact, all information in b) is presupposed by a simple utterance a).,Page 46,Second, pragmatic presupposition helps the speaker to hide communication purposes. If spe

50、akers express some information through presupposition, the information may become more convincing. This is best reflected in advertisement. The principles of a piece of successful advertisement is broadcasting but not boasting, convincing but not disgusting. For example: the advertisement of Maxwell

51、 House Coffee: Good to the last drop. This slogan presupposes that Maxwell House Coffee is of good taste. It is brief but persuadable, not telling people how tasty it is but instead telling its good even to the last drop.,Page 47,Third, pragmatic presupposition provides connecting for the coherence

52、of utterances. Seeing from semantic point of view, many utterances in daily communication are not mutually connected, but they can ensure the success of communication. Thats because both the speaker and the hearer have the pragmatic presupposition that makes the utterance felicitous. For example: Ja

53、ck: Whats the time? Jerry: The postman just arrived. Superficially speaking, Jerrys response has nothing to do with Jacks question.However, Jack knows the postman arrives at 12 a.m. every day. So, the time must be around 10 oclock.,Page 48,Fourth, pragmatic presupposition can produce humorousness. A

54、s is known to all,speakers can make different presuppositions according to different conversation contexts,and assume the hearers can understand, so that the communication will be successful. However, sometimes, hearers misunderstand or ignore such presuppositions on purpose and hence produce some s

55、pecial effects such as humorousness.,Page 49,For example: Girl: If we become engaged, will you give me a ring? Boy: Sure. Whats your phone number? The girl has feelings toward the boy and hopes the boy to give her an engagement ring. The girls presupposition is understandable to everyone. But the bo

56、y misunderstands it purposely, seeing engagement “ring” as phone “ring”. He ignores the girls intention and implies that he doesnt love her.,Page 50,6.The projection probem,Pragmatics deals with the meanings and effects that come from the use of language in particular situations. Presupposition is t

57、he most common phenomenon in daily conversation. Such a strictly truth-conditional definition of presupposition fails on several counts: First, there is more to sentences than the abstract truth value they carry when viewed as logical propositions. Second, sentences, when spoken, cant be considered

58、in isolation from the speaker and the listener, who are relevant factors in any situation of language. Third, we do not live our lives, or speak, by truth conditions alone: “truth” is at best one among many other concerns that people have. (Jacob, 2001:145),Page 51,The term “projection” comes from t

59、ransformational grammar, in which it refers to the assignment of semantic interpretation of a sentence on the basis of the semantic interpretation of its constituents. In the present context, it refers to the interpretation of a complex sentence on the basis of its constituent clauses. It is discovered that the presuppos