Papers on presuppositions
- Meaning and Use . (in Handbook of Philosophy and Linguistics, by Asher, Fernando, and Kempson, ) pdf file
This paper deals with the meaning of natural language expressions, and how meanings of expressions are used in communication. The two disciplines that talk most about meanings of expressions are linguistics (semantics and pragmatics) and philosophy. This paper is about topics discussed in both disciplines. The first part of the paper is more philosophical in nature and discusses what is meaning in the first place, and how it is related with reference. The second part is concerned with the relation between semantics and pragmatics.
- Strengthening conditional presuppositions. (Journal of Semantics, 2007, 24: 289-304); pdf file
In this paper it will be shown how conditional presuppositions can be strengthened to unconditional ones if we assume that the antecedent and consequent of a conditional presupposition are {\it independent} of one another. Our notion of independence is very weak, and based on Lewis' (1988) notion of orthogonality of questions. It will be argued that our way to strengthen these presuppositions does not give rise to some wrong predictions Geurts (1996) argued other proposed strengthening accounts do.
- A modal analysis of presupposition and modal subordination (Journal of Semantics, 2005, 281-306. pdf file )
In this paper I give a
modal two-dimensional analysis of presupposition and
modal subordination. I will think of presupposition as a non-veridical propositional attitude. This allows me to evaluate what is presupposed and what is asserted at different dimensions without getting into the binding problem. What is presupposed will be represented by an accessibility relation between possible worlds. The major part of the paper consists of a proposal to account for the
dependence of the interpretation of modal expressions, i.e. modal subordination, in
terms of an accessibility relation as well. Moreover, I
show how such an analysis can be extended from the
propositional to the predicate logical level.
- A review of Nirit Kadmon's `Formal Pragmatics' (Journal of Pragmatics, 2005, 749-755) pdf
file
- Presupposition: An (un)common attitude? ; (In Bauerle et al. (eds.), Presupposition and Discourse, Elsevier, Amsterdam)
pdf
file
In this paper I argue that
presupposition should be thought of as a propositional
attitude. I will separate questions on truth from
questions of presupposition satisfaction by making use
of a two-dimensional analysis. The update of what is
presupposed will be accounted for by eliminating arrows,
which also makes possible an appealing analysis of modal
subordination. (The paper `A modal analysis of modal subordination' is an extension of this paper)
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