Exercise Presupposition or entailment: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:12, 8 September 2013

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

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.

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 +- '''A''': Where is the man with the megaphone? '''B''': There is a man with a megaphone.
 || Questions never have entailments, only assertions do. Also: A definite NP presupposes the existence (and uniqueness) of an individual with the described property.
+-+ '''A''': At least three students solved the problem. '''B''': At least two students solved the problem.
+|| The inference disappears if we negate '''A''', i.e., ''It is not true that at least three students solved the problem.'' does not allow us to infer '''B'''.
 +- '''A''': The Queen of England attended a cooking workshop. '''B''': There is a queen of England.
 || Negation test: The '''B''' sentence can also be inferred from the negation of the '''A''' sentence (''The Queen of England did not attend a cooking workshop.''). Also: A definite NP has an existential presupposition.