What is an open presupposed proposition?

Definition
	An open presupposed proposition is a presupposition that contains a variable about which the utterance supplies information.

Example (English)

She gave something to Harry.

This proposition is presupposed by the contrastive stress in she gave the SHIRT to Harry and by the cleft sentence it was the SHIRT that she gave to Harry.

Source:

Prince 1986 209

Generic
	An open presupposed proposition is a kind of
	What is an actual presupposition?

Source
	Prince 1986 209

Context for this page:

Concept module: open presupposed proposition
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): O
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