Exercise Presuppositions

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The following material is an adapted form of material created by student participants of the project e-Learning Resources for Semantics (e-LRS).
Involved participants: Katharina, Caterina, Daniela, Eva

Presuppositions

The following sentences make certain presuppositions. Indicate which of the given candidate inferences are presuppositions?

1 Would you mind washing up the dishes this time?

There are dishes that need to be washed up.
I do not have time to do the dishes.
The dishes needed to be washed up before.
Someone didn't wash up the dishes the last time they needed to be washed up.

2 I want more milk for my tea!

I hate tea with milk.
I am having tea.
Someone has already put milk in his/her tea.
I do not like my tea with the amount of milk that is currently in the tea.

3 Alex's wife has called.

Alex is married.
Alex is male.
Alex's wife has called the speaker.
There exists a married woman.


Presupposition or entailment?

Is the B sentence a presupposition or an entailment of the A sentence?

presupposition entailment
A: Where is the man with the megaphone? B: There is a man with a megaphone.
A: At least three students solved the problem. B: At least two students solved the problem.
A: The Queen of England attended a cooking workshop. B: There is a queen of England.
A: My dog Richard was killed in a car accident. B: My dog Richard is dead.


Types of presuppositions

The sentences in A presuppose the sentence B. Determine the type of presupposition.

existential factive lexical structural non-factive counterfactual
A: The fair boy shook his head. B: There is a boy who is fair.
A: I stopped eating meat. B: I used to eat meat
A: What movie did you end up watching last friday? B: The addressee watched a movie last friday.
A: I wish I wouldn't have eaten these delicious fries with extra ketchup, now I have to get changed. B: The speaker has eaten these delicious fries with extra ketchup.
A: If I would not have eaten so much over the holidays I would still fit my favorite jeans. B: The speaker has eaten so much over the holidays.
A: Alex knew that Chris didn't call. B: Chris didn't call.
A: It was in the opera that I have lost my glasses. B: I have lost my glasses somewhere.


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