PRESUPPOSITION

Presented by____
Id ___181110026
Types of presupposition
1. Existential Presupposition
2. Factive Presupposition
3. Non Factive Presupposition
4. Lexical Presupposition
5. Structural Presupposition
6. Counterfactual Presupposition
 Lexical Presupposition
• In lexical presupposition, the use of
one form with its asserted meaning is
conventionally interpreted with the
presupposition that another (non-
asserted) meaning is understood.
 Examples
• Someone managed to do something. (>> The person
succeeded
in some way)
• He stopped smoking. (>> He used to smoke)
• They started complaining. (>> They weren't’ t
complaining before).
• You’re late again. (>> You were late before)
• In the case of lexical presupposition, the speaker’s use of
particular expression is taken to presuppose another
(unstated) concept, where as in the case of factive
presupposition, the use of particular expression is taken to
presuppose the truth of information that is stated after it.
 Structural Presupposition
• Structural presupposition is presupposition which is
associated with the use of certain words and phrases. In
this case, certain sentence structures have been analyzed as
conventionally and regularly presupposing that part of the
structure is already assumed to be true. In this case
speakers can use structures to treat information as
presupposed ( assumed to be true) and hence to be
accepted as true by the listener.
 Examples

• When did he leave? (>> He left)

• Where did you buy the bike? (>> You bought the bike)

• Structural presupposition can lead listeners to believe that

the information presented is necessarily true, rather than
just the presupposition of the person asking the question.
Counterfactual Presupposition
• Counter-factual presupposition is one that what
is presupposed is not only non true, but is the
opposite of what is true or ‘contrary to fact’. A
conditional structure is generally called a counter-
factual conditional, presupposes that the
information in the if-clause is not true at the time
of utterance.
 Examples
• If you were my friend, you would help me.
(>> You are not my friend)
• If I weren't ill,……………. (>> I am ill.)
• If I had enough money, I would buy that
house. (>>> I do not have enough money)
• If he had not made such a terrible mistake,
we would be very happy now. (>>He did
make/made a terrible mistake.)