1. Definition of Presupposition
Presupposition is what the speaker
assumes to be the case prior to making an utterance. Entailment, which is not a pragmatic concept, is what logically
follows from what is asserted in the utterance. Speakers have presuppositions
while sentences, not speakers, have entailments.
For example :
Ø
Jane’s brother bought two houses.
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.
2. Types of Presupposition
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.
These linguistic forms are considered here as indicators of potential
presupposition, which can only become actual presupposition in contexts with
speakers. The types of presupposition are:
ü
Existential presupposition:
it is the assumption
of the existence of the entities named by the speaker.
For example, when a speaker says
"Tom’s car is new", we can presuppose that Tom exists and that he has
a car.
ü
Factive presupposition: it is the assumption that something is
true due to the presence of some verbs such as "know" and
"realize" and of phrases involving glad.
For example. Thus, when a speaker says
that she didn’t realize someone was ill, we can presuppose that someone is ill.
Also, when she says "I’m glad it’s over”, we can presuppose that it’s over.
ü
Lexical presupposition: it is the assumption that, in using one
word, the speaker can act as if another meaning (word) will be understood. For
instance:
Andrew stopped running. (>>He used to run.)
You are late again. (>> You were late before.)
In this case, the use of the expressions "stop" and "again"
are taken to presuppose another (unstated) concept.
ü
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 (e.g. when and where) is already known to be the case.
When did she travel to the USA? ( >> she traveled)
Where did you buy the book? (>> you bought the book)
The listener perceives that the information presented is necessarily
true rather than just the presupposition of the person asking the question.
ü
Non- factive
presupposition: it is an assumption that something is not true. For example, verbs like
"dream", "imagine" and "pretend" are used with
the presupposition that what
follows is not true.
I dreamed that I was rich. (>> I am not rich)
We imagined that we were in London. (>> We are not in London)
ü
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.
If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this. ( > you
are not my daughter)
3. Definiton of Entailment
Entailment
is the relationship between two sentences
where the truth of one (A) requires the truth of the other (B).
For example, the sentence (A) The president was assassinated.
entails (B) The president is dead.
Notice also that if (B) is false, then (A) must necessarily be false. To show
entailment, we must show that (A) true forces (B) to be true and (B) false
forces (A) to be false.
Entailment also differs from presupposition in that in presupposition,
the truth of what one is presupposing is taken for granted. A simple test to
differentiate presupposition from entailment is negation. For example, both The king of France is ill and The king of France is not ill
presuppose that there is a king of France. However The president was not assassinated no longer entails The president is dead (nor its
opposite, as the president could have died in another way). In this case,
presupposition remains under negation, but entailment does not.
There are two other types of
entailment, namely one-way entailment and two-way (or mutual) entailment.
One-way entailment is the entailment
that works in only one direction. The
example of One-way
entailment:
3 (a) Jenny saw a bear
3 (b) Jenny saw an animal
The front and behind have meaning relationship and the sentence can be
paraphrased. If the (a) sentence is true, the sentence (b) is also necessarily
true.
Meanwhile two-way entailment
is the entailment that has meaning relationship and the sentences that contain
mutual entailment are paraphrases of each other.
Two-way (or mutual) entailment:
4 (a) my mother is in front of my
father
4 (b) my father is behind my mother
CONCLUSION
1. Presuppositions
are inferences about what is assumed in an utterance rather than directly
asserted.
The example : 1
(a) where has David look for the books? It means David looked for the books.
The types of presupposition are: existential
presupposition, factive presupposition, lexical
presupposition, structural presupposition, non-factive
presupposition,
and counterfactual presupposition.
2. Entailments
are inferences that can be drawn solely from our knowledge about the semantic
relationship in a language. This knowledge allows us to communicate much more
than we actually “say”.
The
example : 1 (a) Annie caught a trout, 1 (b) Annie caught a
fish
In each case, we can say that sentence
(b) is an entailment of sentence (a). That is, other sentences which are
automatically true if the original sentence is true.
REFERENCES
Lecture
Notes.
LING 590.
2009
Areej As'ad Ja'far. Entailment and Presupposition. Babylon
University
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