MODULE 2: ENTAILMENT AND PRESSUPPOSITION

Entailment

a relationship that applies between 2 sentences/propositions (lời tuyên bố, xác nhận), where the truth of one implies the truth of the other (because of meanings of the words involved)

--> a sentence expressing A entails a sentence expressing B if the truth of A follows necessarily from the truth of B

E.g: Mr. Smith has married Mary entails Mary is now a married women

John eats the cakes entails Someone eats something

John killed Bill entails Bill died

Entailment is concerned with the (1) _____ of the sentence itself (not utterance meaning). It does not depend on (2) ______ in which the sentence is used

(1) meaning

(2) context

Entailment also happens when one set of objects is included in another. It may be seen as a kind of _____.

hyponymic (hạ vị) relation

Ex: John caught a trout (cá hồi sống) --> John caught a fish

Entailment also involves the use of determiners. This is simply _________.

the relation of inclusion

Ex: Every student is odd

--> Most students are odd

Background Entailment

when a speaker utters a sentence, he is necessarily committed to the truth of a number of background entailments

Ex: Rover chased 3 squirrels

entails

- Sth/sb chased 3 squirrels

- Rover did sth to 3 squirrels

- Rover chased 3 of sth

- Sth happened

Foreground Entailment

the speaker will communicate which entailment is more important for interpreting than any others

Foreground entailment

- usually indicated by STRESS (John chased THREE squirrels)

- by "it-cleft" structure (It was Mai who did that)

Presupposition vs Entailment

- Speakers have presuppositions while sentences have entailments

- Entailments are communicated without being said and are not dependent on the speaker's intention.

Ex: 'Susan's sister bought two houses'

Presupposition: a girl called Susan exists and she has a sister

Entailment: Susan's sister bought something

One-way entailment

the first sentence entails the second but NOT the other way round

Ex: The porridge is too cold entails The porridge is not too hot

John saw a bear entails John saw an animal

Two-way entailment

the first sentence entails the second and the second entails the first

Ex: John is behind Mary --> Mary is behind John

John captured a fish entails John caught a fish

Entailment

Assertion and Presupposition

Assertion

- a declarative sentence typically asserts that a state of affair exits (sự xác nhận?)

- assertion is the characteristics of all declarative sentences BUT NOT all of them have presuppositions

Ex: Mary kicked my dog directly asserts Mary kicked my dog and presuppose I have a dog

Pressuposition

- the assumption the speaker makes about what the hearer is likely to accept without challenge

- what a speaker/write assumes that the receiver of the message already knows

Ex: When did you stop smoking presupposes:

- You stopped smoking

- You did smoke

Inferences (sự suy diễn)

- closely linked to the words and grammatical structures used in the utterances

- coming from our knowledge about the way language users conventionally interprete these words and structures

Types of presupposition

7 types:

- potential

- existential

- factive

- lexical

- non-factive

- structural

- counter-factual

Potential presupposition

- assumptions made by speakers DO NOT HAVE TO BE TRUE

- assumptions made by speakers but NOT VERIFIED by available data

e.g: The earth is flat

Existential presupposition

- claims that CERTAIN ENTITIES do EXIST

- possessive construction --> used to express the existence of certain entities

ex: John has a daughter --> John exists

Factive presupposition

- information treated as a fact

- follows verbs: know, realise, be aware of, regret, .../adjectives

e.g: Everybody knows that George Michael is a great artist

It is odd that he works for his father's company

Lexical presupposition

- the use of a certain word --> interpreted with the presupposition that another meaning is understood

E.g: managed to --> succeeded > tried

- the use of a particular expression is taken to presuppose another unstated concept

E.g: I don't want to do it again --> I has done it before

Structural presupposition

- certain sentence structures presuppose that part of the structure is assumed to be true

Ex: How did you open the door? --> You opened the door

Non-factive presupposition

- assumed not true

- verbs: dream, pretend, imagine....

e.g: I pretend not to see him --> I saw him

Counter-factual presupposition

- what is presupposed is NOT TRUE + CONTRARY TO FACTS

e.g: If he were rich --> he is not rich

presuppositions and subordinate clauses

e.g: when did Mike smashed the TV?

I wonder how Mike smashed the TV?

--> wh-words can trigger propositions both when they are used to ask a question and when they introduced a subordinate clause

presuppositions and verbs

- certain verbs and constructions also trigger presupposition

e.g: Steve regrets buying a dog

Mai should stop eating raw oyster

Verbs trigger presupposition

know, realise, discover, find out, be aware that, it is strange/odd that, keep, start, begin ....