Presupposition

 

Presupposition

Firstly, presupposition according to experts:

·         Yule (1996) à Presupposition is assumption of the speaker to be the case prior to making an utterance.

·         Grundy (2008)  àPresupposition as a background knowledge necessary for utterance to be appropriate to say and it is accommodated  by the addressee.

·         Huang (2007) à Defines presupposition as an inference or proposition whose truth is taken for granted in the utterance of a sentence. Presupposition has close relationship with speakers, not sentences.

·         Potts (2014:3) à presuppositions of an utterance are the pieces of information that the speaker assumes in order for their utterance to be meaningful in the current context

 

Presupposition Trigger

A presupposition trigger is a construction or item that signals the existence of a presupposition in an utterance. The function of presupposition trigger is as a property language to establish audience’s either interpretation or ideology. In the communication usually has two positions, that are as a reader and listener. Moreover, presupposition trigger forming either an advantage or disadvantage preconception by way of the text. Presupposition deals with implicit meanings revealed by the speaker.  Presupposition triggers, and they can be classed into a variety of categories, that are:

·         Definite description

A definite description is a form phrase where the form is a noun phrase. In this presupposition trigger is stated appropriate when a phrase is intention for one object, and Somewhat. And this presupposition trigger is declared imprecise when there is more than one reference is contained in a speech or an utterance.                                                      For examples:

è I saw/didn’t see the girl with four hands.

n  There exists a girl with four hands. The definite description the girl with four hands triggers the presupposition “there exists a girl with four hands”. The unbelievability of the presupposition is what makes the negative weird utterance and  the positive utterance unbelievable.

·         Factive verbs                                                                                                                                             Factive verbs according to  (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1971) are verbs that take a sentential complement and presuppose that complement. A sentence that uses a factive verb, implicitly establish the clue or guidance as truth rather than hypothesis. And relate with knowledge, This presupposition is the contention that something is right or presupposition derived from some verbs concluding a fact as in knows, learn, remembers, and realized. In additional, some further factive predicates such as know; be sorry that; be proud that; be indifferent that; be glad that; be sad that.

For examples:

è Rani didn’t realize that she forgot.

n  She forgot à In fact was forgotten by Rani or in fact Rani forgot.

è Kyan regret told me.

n  Kyan told me. à in fact kyan told me.

è Miriam aware that she was engaged.

n  She was engage. à in fact she was engaged or she was in fact that she was engaged.

è Hega was odd how proud he was.

n  Hega was in fact proud.

è James was aware that her girlfriend was there.

n  Her girlfriend was in fact there.

 

·         Change-of-state verbs:

Change-of-state verbs presuppose an ongoing situation is considered presumption information. Change of state verbs are arrive, begin, come, enter, go, leave, stop, and take. as well as leave; enter; come; go; arrive; etc.

For examples:

è Lisa stopped moving the big good.

n  Lisa had been moving the big good.

è Jennie began looking her ribbon.

n  Jennie had not been looking her ribbon.

è Blackpink entered in the swanky stage at the concert “The Show”.

n  Blackpink had not entering in the swanky stage at the concert “The Show”.

·         Itteratives

It presupposes events or occurence that occurred before. Further iterative or sentence containing iterative trigger such as another time; to come back; restore; repeat;

    For examples:

è The man who is standing there brought the balloon again.

n  The man brought balloon before.

è  The evil pixie queen returns to power.

n  The evil pixie queen held power before.

è The workers are rebuilding King Ji's company office.

n  The sentence has a word using prefix re- (rebuilding) It presupposes events or occurence that occurred before, The use of rebuilding meant to realize that King Ji ordered to the workers to build his company office before.

·         Cleft sentence

Cleft sentence structures highlight particular aspects of a sentence and consider the surrounding information with background  knowledge. The sentence is typically not spoken to strangers, but rather to addressees who are conscious of the ongoing situation or current situation. The types of cleft are it-cleft (cleft construction or just cleft), the wh-cleft (called pseudo-cleft), and the inverted wh-cleft (also known as a reverse pseudo-cleft construction):

è Cleft construction: It was her father that surprised her mom.

n  It presupposes: Someone surprised her mom

è Pseudo-cleft construction: What Gio lost was his black cat.

n  It presupposes: Gio lost something.