What is a potential presupposition?

Definition
	A potential presupposition is a presupposition that is triggered by some part of an utterance (such as a subordinate clause) taken in isolation, but that may or may not be a presupposition of the whole utterance.

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.

Generic
	A potential presupposition is a kind of
	What is a presupposition?

Sources
	Gazdar 1979 124

Context for this page:

Concept module: potential presupposition
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): P
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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