What is an actual presupposition?

Definition
	An actual presupposition is any potential presupposition that is not canceled by its context.

Example (English)
	The utterance John says that the king of France is bald has two potential presuppositions: There is someone identified as John. There is a king of France. Of these two, only the presupposition that there is someone identified as John is an actual presupposition, because the second presupposition is reported.

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of actual presuppositions:
	What is an open presupposed proposition? What is a whole presupposed proposition?

Generic
	An actual presupposition is a kind of
	What is a presupposition?

Source
	Gazdar 1979 124

Context for this page:

Concept module: actual presupposition
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): A
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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