Presupposition

&
Entailment

Fajrin Ghofur
Aulia Rachmabaiti
Definition of Presupposition & Entailment

• Certain information which is assumed as

already known for the listeners and will not be
stated.
• Much more central topragmatics in the past
than now.
• We discuss them to understand the
relationship between semantics and
pragmatics.
Differences of Presupposition & Entailment
Presupposition Entailment
The speaker assumes Something logically
to be the case prior to follows from what is
making an utterance. asserted in utterance.
Speakers, not Sentences, not
sentences have it. speakers, have it.
More speaker- Naturally logic and
dependent notion. less discussed.
Example:
Mary’s brother bought three horses.
• Presuppositions are:
• Mary exists.
• Mary has brothers.
• Mary has only one brother.
• He has a lot of money.
• Entailments are:
• Mary’s brother boughtsomething.
• He bought three animals.
• He bought two horses.
• He bought one horse.
• Etc.
Presupposition

• A relationship between two propositions.

a) Mary’s dog is cute. (=p)
b) Mary has a dog. (=q)
c) p >> q (p presuppose q)
• Constancy under negation:
a) Mary’s dog isn’t cute. (= NOTp)
b) Mary has a dog. (=q)
c) NOT p >>q
Constancy Under Negation : anotherexample

a) Everybody knows that john is handsome.(=p)

b) Everybody doesn’t know that john is handsome. (=
NOTp)
c) John is handsome. (=q)
d) p >> q && NOT p>> q
• The speakers disagree about the validity of p
while they both assume the truth of q.
• q is proposed by both p and NOTp.
Types of presupposition

1. Existential
2. Factive
3. Lexical
4. Structural
5. Non-Factive
6. Counterfactual
Notice : we consider potential presumptions,
which can only become actual presuppositions in
contexts with speakers.
Existential Presupposition

• Speaker is committed to the existence of the

entities named, not only in possessive
constructions, but in any definite nounphrase.
• Examples:
• The King of France
• The cat
• The girl next door
• Your car
Factive Presupposition

• Certain verbs or construction indicate that

something is a fact.
• Verbs:
• know, realize, regret
• Phrases:
• be aware, be odd, be glad
• We regret telling him. --> We told him.
• She didn’t realize hewas ill. --> He was ill.
• I’m glad it’s over --> It’s over.
Lexical Presupposition

• This assumption is that in using one word, the

speaker can act as if another non-asserted
meaning (word) will beunderstood.
A. Someone managed to do something.
asserted : The person succeeded in someway.
B. Someone didn’t manage to do something.
asserted : The person did not succeed.

Non-asserted in both: The person tried!

Lexical Presupposition
• Lexical items ‘start’ , ‘stop’ and ‘again’have
presuppositions inside:
• He stopped smoking. >> He used to smoke.
• They started complaining. >> They weren’t
complaining before.
• You are late again. >> you were late before.
• Notice : here, the speaker presuppose
another unstated concept. But in factive
presupposition, the speaker presuppose the
truth of statedinformation.
Structural Presupposition
• Is the assumption associated with the use
of certain words andphrases.
• In certain sentence structure, part ofthe
structure is already assume to betrue.
• Speaker can use such structure to treat
information as presupposed and hence be
accepted as true by listener or lead him to
believe that the information is necessarily
true.
Structural Presupposition

• Good example is wh-question construction

in English:
• When did he leave? >> He left.
• Where did you buy the bike? >> You bought
the bike.
• Subtle way of making information that the
speaker believes appear to be what the
speaker should believe!
Non-factive Presupposition

• Is one that is assumed not to betrue.

• Examples:
• I dreamed that I was rich. >> I was not rich.
• We imagine we were in Hawaii. >> We were
not in Hawaii.
• He pretends to be ill. >> He is not ill.
Counter–factual Presupposition
• Meaning that what is presupposed is not
only not true, but is the opposite of what is
true, or “contrary to facts.”
• Counterfactual conditional:
• If clauses:
If I had enough money, I would buy thathouse.
>> I do not have enough money
• embedded clause after wish :
They wish they could go on vacation now.
>> They cannot go on vacation now.
 Type Example Presupposition

Existential The X >> x exists

Factive I regret leaving >> I left

Non-factive He pretended to >> he wasn’t

be happy happy
Lexical He managed to >>He tried to
scape. scape.
Structural When did she >> she died.
die?
Counterfactual If I weren’t ill, >> I am ill
 Entailment
• Not a pragmatic concept, but a purely logical
concept.
• Symbolized by II-
• Eg: Rover chased three squirrels. (= p)
a. Something chased three squirrels. (= q)
b. Rover did something to three squirrels. (= r)
c. Rover chased three of something. (= s)
d. Something happened. (= t)
p II- q
Not a pragmatic concept, but a purely logical
concept.
Symbolized by II-
Eg: Rover chased three squirrels.

Something chased three squirrels.

Rover did something to three squirrels.

Rover chased three of something.

Something happened
 Types of Entailment

1. Background entailment
• Logical concept of entailment
• A very large number of them exists for an
utterance.
2. Foreground Entailments
• The speaker can communicate, usually by means
of stress, more important for interpretingintended
meaning than any others.
Marking the Main Assumption

• Rover chased THREE squirrels.

• Rover chased a certain number of squirrels.
• ROVER chased three squirrels.
• The focus shift to Rover and the mainassumption
is that something chased three squirrels.
• ‘it-cleft’ structure has a similar function:
• It wasn’t ME who took yourmoney.
 Question

1.What the definision of presupposition ?

2.What the defnision of Entailment ?
3.What the differences of presupposition and
Entailment ?
4.Give 3 exemple of presupposition ?
5.Give 3 exemple of Entailment ?
6.Mention the types of presuposition ?
7.Mention the types of entailment ?