Textual Presupposition: An Intertextual Account

Whereas there has been ample research on presupposition, and different taxonomies have been put forward on the various types of presupposition, presupposition triggers, on the difference between entailment and presupposition, and on the dichotomy semantic presupposition/pragmatic presupposition, the interrelationship between presupposition and intertextuality has not received due attention. In some philosophical and linguistic accounts, the presupposition is preserved as a meaning-based notion and thereby accounted for in non -intertextual way where only propositions that are accepted and taken for granted by speaker/ writer count. The present study argues for an intertextual account of presupposition, where the proposition is not the property of the speaker/writer per se; rather, the presupposed proposition is interpreted in terms of intertextual relations with previous texts. The aim of the present article was to find; changed to, what kind of knowledge text producers expect their audience to have to be able to process new texts; what kind of knowledge text producers presuppose in the creation of new texts; the conceptual status of presupposition when new information is conveyed; and how presuppositions obtain in the case of intertextuality. This has been accomplished by drawing on both notions: Presupposition and intertextuality to argue whereas the two notions have been kept separate in non-intertextual accounts on presupposed propositions, both notions work on the same level of drawing on the text, and therefore to argue for coining a new term textual presupposition.

How many ἀρεταί in Plato's Protagoras?

A large debate around Plato’s Protagoras concerns the so-called ‘unity of virtue’, namely Socrates’ ultimate position on the relation between ἀρετή and the five concepts (justice, piety, prudence, wisdom, and courage) connected with it. In this article, I will draw on the language and ideas of the dialogue to question the semantic presupposition which all the scholars involved in the debate, whatever their views, have been sharing, namely that the five concepts can be considered as ἀρεταί, and not just as ‘good qualities’ (τὰ καλά), or ‘parts’ (μόρια), or ‘names’ (ὀνόματα) of ἀρετή, as Plato terms them.

Presupposition

There are various senses in which one statement may be said to ‘presuppose’ another, senses which are in permanent danger of being confused. Prominent among them are Strawsonian presupposition, a relation which obtains between statements when the falsity of one deprives the other of truth-value (for example, ‘There was such a person as Kepler’ is a Strawsonian presupposition of ‘Kepler died in misery’); semantic presupposition, which obtains between a statement and a particular use of a sentence type, when the falsity of the statement means that that use will not after all constitute the making of a statement (for example, ‘The name "Kepler" has a bearer’ is a semantic presupposition of ‘Kepler died in misery’); and pragmatic presupposition, a broader notion exemplified by the legitimate presumption that accepting or denying the statement ‘Fred knows that the earth moves’ means accepting ‘The earth moves’.

Illocution of direct speech acts via conventional implicature and semantic presupposition

The research introduces the notion of the additional illocution subdivided into illocution-expander, illocution-intensifier, and assessment illocution. Each component is characterized by a different type of correlations with conventional implicature and semantic presupposition. Two types of correlations have been specified: the match in meanings and triggers and the mediation by felicity conditions.

Dissatisfaction Theory

I propose a new theory of semantic presupposition, which I call 'dissatisfaction theory'. I first briefly review a cluster of problems - known collectively as the 'proviso problem' - for most extant theories of presupposition, arguing that the main pragmatic response to them faces a serious challenge. I avoid these problems by adopting two changes in perspective on presupposition. First, I propose a theory of projection according to which presuppositions project unless they are locally entailed. Second, I reject the standard assumption that presuppositions are contents which must be entailed by the input context; instead, I propose that presuppositions are contents which are marked as backgrounded. I show that, together, these commitments allow us to avoid the proviso problem altogether, and generally make plausible predictions about presupposition projection out of connectives and attitude predicates. I close by sketching a two-dimensional implementation of my theory which allows us to make further welcome predictions about attitude predicates and quantifiers.

When a ‘non-issue’ becomes an issue in discourse surrounding LGBT communities

This paper uses the theory of intertextuality to examine the discourse surrounding California’s Proposition 8, the statewide ballot measure to reverse legalization of same-sex marriage. More specifically, this paper analyzes the newspaper reports that surfaced in February 2010, concerned with the fact that the judge deciding the case is a gay man. The initial story, which claimed that this should be a “non-issue,” sparked a multitude of articles aimed at different readerships over the following week, therein making the “non-issue” an issue. I analyze how intertextuality is used by three types of news sources (LGBT, mainstream, and Religious Right) to report the same issue but in ways specifically aimed at the ideal reader of each. I argue that the way intertextuality occurs in constructed dialogue, lexical choice, and semantic presupposition creates an ideological message meant for and decodable by each publication’s ideal reader, therein reinforcing group ideologies about LGBT issues.