语用学Chapter 3 Presupposition陈新仁何自然何伟
青岛公务员考试-小四语录
Chapter Three
Presupposition
Contents
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I. Definition of
Presupposition
II. Properties of
Presupposition
III. Presupposition and
projection
IV. Presupposition and entailment
V. Types of presuppositions
VI. Functions
of presupposition
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I.
Definition of Presupposition
(1) Shared
assumptions (Peter Grundy, 1995)
(2)
Background assumptions against which the main
import of an utterance is assessed. The
relation is
something like the figure and
ground in Gestalt
psychology: the figure of
an utterance is what is
asserted or what is
the main point of what is said,
while the
ground is the set of presuppositions against
which the figure is assessed.
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II. Properties of Presupposition
1. Associated with particular aspects of
surface structure, called presupposition
trigger.
Karttunen collected
thirty-one kinds of
such triggers.
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1.1 Definite description (Strawson,
1950, 1952):
the , this that + NP, the 3rd
person pronoun, proper
nouns, possessive + n
John saw the man with two heads.
There exists a man with two
heads.
1.2 Factive verbs or adjective
phrase (Kiparsky &
Kiparsky, 1971) :
regret, realize, know, glad, proud,
sorry,
sad
Martha regrets drinking
John’s home brew.
Martha drank
John’s home brew.
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The “fact-S”
structure
The fact that Pat wanted to
talk to Stephen is
odd.
The fact of
Pat’s wanting having wanted to
talk to
Stephen is significant.
That Pat wanted
to talk to Stephen is exciting.
Pat’s
wantinghaving wanted to talk to Stephen
matters to me.
It’s tragic that Pat
wants to talk to Stephen.
His friends
regrets the fact that Pat wanted to talk
to
Stephen.
All the examples presuppose
that Pat wanted (wants)
to talk to Stephen.
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1.3 Implicative verbs (Karttunen,
1971b): manage,
forget, happen, avoid
John managed to open the door.
John
tried to open the door.
1.4 Change-of-
state verbs (Sellas,1954; Karttunen,
1973):
stop, finish, begin, leave, enter, turn
John stopped beating his wife.
John had been beating his wife.
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1.5 Iterative: revisit, repeat, back,
again, too,
another time, for the N-th time
In delivering my son from me, I bury
a
second husband.
I buried my
husband.
Come here my varlet, I’ll
unarm again.
I unarmed once.
1.6 Verbs of judging (Fillmore,1971a): accuse,
charge, criticize
Agatha accused
John of plagiarism.
(Agatha thinks)
plagiarism is bad.
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1.7 Temporal
clauses and phrases (Frege, 1892
(1952):
before, after, since
While Chomsky
was revolutionizing
linguistics, the rest of
social science was asleep.
Chomsky
was revolutionizing linguistics.
Did you get a good look at my face when I
took your purse?
I took your
purse. (In the USA, an accused
mugger chose
to defend himself by putting this question
to
his victim. And he was sentenced to 10 years in
prison.)
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1.8 Cleft
sentences(Halvorsen,1978; Prince,
1978; Atlas
& Levinson,1981): It
is …thatwho…, What…
It was Henry that kissed Rose.
Someone kissed Rose.
What I
needed was two extra days.
I
needed something.
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1.9 Implicit
clefts with stressed constituents
(Chomksy,1972)
Linguistics was
invented by CHOMSKY!
Someone
invented linguistics.
1.10 Comparisons
and contrasts (Lakoff,1971)
Carol
is a better linguist than Barbara.
Barbara is a linguist.
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1.11 Non-
restrictive relative clauses
Hillary, who climbed Everest in 1953, was
the
greatest explorer of our day.
Hillary climbed Everest.
1.12
Counterfactual conditionals
If
you had sent me a Christmas card last year,
I
would have sent you one this year.
You did not send me a Christmas card last
year.
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1.13 Questions
(Katz,1972;Lyons, 1977):
Yesno questions;
alternative questions; WH-
questions
Is there a professor of linguistics at MIT?
Either there is a professor of linguistics at
MIT or there isn’t.
Is
Newcastle in England or is it in Australia?
Newcastle is in England or Newcastle is in
Australia.
Who is the professor of
linguistics at MIT?
Someone is the
professor of linguistics at MIT.
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2. “Constancy under negation test”
(Levinson,
1983, p. 185)
It is often
claimed that presupposition can
survive
negation.
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Her successor
managed to win the election that
followed.
This presupposes that her successor
tried or that
winning the election was not
easy.
Her successor didn’t
managed to win the election
that followed.
This still presuppose that her
successor tried or
that winning the election
was not easy.
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The
Prime Minister remembered to keep
a record
of her instructions at the time arms were
exported to Iraq.
This
presupposes that the Prime Minister
should
have kept a record of her instructions.
The Prime Minister didn’t remember to keep
a
record of her instructions at the time arms were
exported to Iraq.
And the
same presupposition is kept despite
of the
negation.
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3. Defeasible in
certain discourse contexts or
certain intra-
sentential contexts.
Sue cried
before she finished her thesis.
Sue finished her thesis.
Sue died
before she finished her thesis.
Sue
finished her thesis.?
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Suppose the conversational participants
mutually know that John failed to get a
doctoral course, we say:
At least
John won’t have to regret that he
did a PhD.
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4. Suspendable by the use of if-
clause
John didn’t cheat again, if
ever he did.
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III. Presupposition
and projection
Projection has to do
with verbs which
take complements, and
complex sentences.
Presupposition
contained in a simple
structure may not
survive in a complex
structure containing
that simple structure.
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I
(do not) regret that I want to murder my
neighbor.
I believe my neighbor is
going deaf.
I don’t know that my wife
fancies the
milkman.
If John does
linguistics, he will regret
doing it.
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IV. Presupposition and entailment
The two thieves were caught again last night.
The two thieves had been caught before.
The two thieves were not caught again last
night.
The two thieves had been caught
before.
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A statement A
presupposes another
statement B if
(a) If A is true, then B is true
(b) If A is false, then B is true
A semantically entails B if every
situation
that makes A true, makes B true.
(a) If A is true, then B is true
(b) If A is false, then B may be true or false
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John managed
to stop in time.
John
stopped in time.
John tried
to stop in time.
John didn’t manage to
stop in time.
John
stopped in time.
John tried
to stop in time.
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Entailment is the natural meaning of an
utterance which is present on every occasion
when an expression occurs.
Negation alters a sentence’s entailments, but
leaves the presupposition untouched.
Behavior under negation makes a basic
distinction between presupposition and
entailment.
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V. Types of
presuppositions
(A)
ConventionalSemantic presupposition
is related
to truth value conditions of a
proposition.
(B) Pragmatic presupposition is
related to
felicity conditions of utterances.
It covers everything that the
speaker assumes to
be in existence or true
prior to making an utterance.
It
concerns not only actual information but also
expectations, desires, claims, attitudes,
fears and
beliefs, etc..
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ConventionalSemantic (page34-37)
presupposition is associated with structure.
Pragmatic presupposition is
a relation
between a speaker and the
appropriateness of
a sentence in a context
(background
assumption, non-linguistic in
nature).
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VI. Functions of
presupposition
1. Economy
“He that hath knowledge spareth his
words.”
(Proverbs 17:27)
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Imagine someone
says
Tell Madonna I’m at lunch.
We can assume that the following conditions
are presupposed:
(a) Madonna is
likely to appear soon.
(b) The addressee
knows who she is and
will pass the message
on.
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We rely on presuppositions,
otherwise we would
have to say in a much more
elaborate way:
“I am expecting Madonna soon
and since I know
that you know what she looks
like and I know that
you are willing to pass
on the message that I am at
lunch, tell her
that I’m at lunch.”
When we rely on
presupposition (s), we can speak
very
economically.
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2. Trapping
“你是什么时候停止偷窃工厂财物的？”
“你是几年级不再欺负女同学的？”
“斑马是黑色还是白色？”
“你停止打老婆没有？”
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3.
Foregrounding and back-grounding
Presupposition, information structure, and
linguistic realization.
“在大青山与乌拉河之间的峪口中有一条昆
都仑河，由北而南流入黄河。昆都仑河就是
古代的石门水，石门水大概是古代游牧民族
进入阴山以南的沃野最方便的一条道路。在
这个通道的外面，已经发现了一些汉代的古
城，有一个古城可能就是汉代的光禄城。”
（左思民，2000，p.147)
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4.
Persuasion
（1）原文：长白山五日游——去的有你吗？
比较：长白山五日游——你去吗？
（2）A: 你今儿用大宝了吗？
B: ……
C: 嘿，你瞧人家那张脸。
（3）为什么广东人显得精神年轻？
（王老吉凉茶颗粒广告）
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