11/10/2021

TUTOR 4. PRESUPPOSITION AND

ENTAILMENT

Question 1. What is PRESUPPOSITION?

Provide examples
Question 2. What is ENTAILMENT? Give
examples
Question 3. How can we differentiate
PRESUPPOSITION and ENTAILMENT?
Give examples
Question 4. How is PRESUPPOSITION
classified? Give examples

PRESUPPOSITION AND ENTAILMENT

Presupposition
Something that the speaker assumes to be the
case prior to making an utterance.
Speakers, not sentences, have presuppositions.

a relationship
between 2
propositions.

Mary has a
brother

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Mary stopped smoking.

Mary used to smoke.

Laura likes her cat.

Laura has a cat.

I have a car.

EXISTENTIAL PRESUPPOSITION

The Prince of
England exists.

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Existential presupposition
• Commited to the existence of entities named
• Linguistic form: Possessive construction, definite
noun pharse
E.g 1: Your car is expensive. (p)

>> You have a car.

E.g 2: The King of Sweden (p)
>> Sweden has a king.

John was ill.

FACTIVE PRESUPPOSITION

Laura was married.

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Factive presupposition
• Presupposed inf can be treated as a fact

• Ling. forms: know, realize, regret, be with

aware, odd, glad…

E.g: She didn’t know that he’s very good.

>> He’s very good.

She couldn’t realize that his family is rich.

>> His family is rich.

It wasn’t raining before.

LEXICAL PRESUPPOSITION
You are too late
AGAIN!
You were too late
BEFORE.

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Lexical presupposition
• Expression is taken to presupposed unstated
meaning.
• Ling. forms: state V (stop, begin, continue…), V
of movement (come, go…), again…

• E.g: She stopped crying. >> She used to cry

She asked him to give her money again.
>> He gave her money before.

Lexical
• Lexical vs. Factive Presupposition:

 Lexical: another/ unstated concept

 Factive: the truth of stated information

E.g: I know they are couple

Stated
information
>> They are couple

They went home. Unstated

information

>> They had been somewhere else.

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It ran the red light.

How fast were the car going

when it ran the red light?

Only
30km/hr.
STRUCTURAL PRESUPPOSITION

Structural
• Sentence structure

• Part of structure: already assumed to be true

 Speaker: assume inf to be true => listener:

accept it is true

E.g: Why did you lie me? >> You lied me

• Ling. form: wh-question

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Structural
• Structural vs. Lexical Presuppostion:
 Structural: based on grammar rule (tense)
 Lexical: based on meaning of words, phrases,
collocations
E.g: She stopped crying Stop + V-ing
= She used to cry
When did she cry? Past simple

= She cried.

I am not rich.

I dreamed I was rich.

I imagined I
NON-FACTIVE PRESUPPOSITIONwas in Hawaii.

I am not in Hawaii.

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Non-factive
• One assumed not to be true
• Ling. forms: dream, imagine, pretend…
• E.g: She dreams that she is his wife.
>> She is not his wife.

She pretends not to love him anymore.

>> She still loves him.

I imagined I
COUNTER-FACTUAL PRESUPPOSITION
was in Hawaii.

I am not rich.
In fact, I’m poor now.
If I were rich, I would
buy you a car

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Counterfactual
• One not only not true, but also contrary to facts

• Ling. forms: if, wish - type 2, 3

• E.g.: If she didn’t refuse his proposal, she wouldn’t

have regretted. >> She refused his proposal

She wishes she hadn’t meet him.

>> She did met him.

George regrets getting George got Mary

Mary pregnant. pregnant.
+
He didn’t get her
pregnant.
George regrets getting Mary pregnant,
= but he didn’t get her pregnant.

But he didn’t get her pregnant.

We know that know.

 Presuppositions
don’t project.

 Because they are

destroyed by entailments.
(Entailment is more powerful
than presupposition).
It’s so sad. George regrets
getting Mary pregnant.

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Entailments

sentences that stand in an implicational

relation, where the truth of the first
guarantees the truth of the second.

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Entailments
• The anarchist assassinated the emperor.
The emperor died.

Entailments
• 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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Entailments

• Not a pragmatic concept

• Considered a purely logical concept

Ordered entailments
Bob ate three sandwiches.
Entails:
• a) Someone ate three sandwiches. (Who ate
the sandwiches)
• b) Bob did something to three sandwiches.
(What Bob did)
• c) Bob ate three of something. (What Bob ate)
• d)Something happened. (What happened)

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Ordered entailments
• The speaker will necessarily produce a
very large number of background
entailments

but

• the speaker will indicate how these

entailments are to be ordered

Ordered entailments
HOW?
by stress
by using special structures: Cleft sentences.
The hearer will understand which entailment is
assumed to be more important for interpreting
intended meaning (foreground entailment)

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Ordered entailments
STRESS:
BOB ate three sandwiches.

 Bob ATE three sandwiches.

Bob ate THREE sandwiches.

Bob ate three SANDWICHES.

Ordered entailments
CLEFT SENTENCES:

a) It was BOB that ate three sandwiches.

b) It was THREE SANDWICHES that Bob

ate.

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