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Single Idea 18050

[filed under theme 19. Language / F. Communication / 5. Pragmatics / c. Presupposition ]

Full Idea

In the traditional account, a sentence s presupposes p if and only if both s and Žs entail p. Standardly, this entails that if s presupposes p, then whenever p is false, s must be neither true nor false.

Gist of Idea

If both s and not-s entail a sentence p, then p is a presupposition

Source

Ofra Magidor (Category Mistakes [2013], 5.3.2)

Book Ref

Magidor,Ofra: 'Category Mistakes' [OUP 2013], p.124

A Reaction

'I'm looking down on the garden' presupposes 'I'm upstairs'. Why would 'I'm not looking down on the garden' entail 'I'm upstairs'? I seem to have missed something.

The 5 ideas with the same theme [what is taken for granted in a conversation]:

18047 A presupposition is what makes an utterance sound wrong if it is not assumed? [Magidor]
18048 A test for presupposition would be if it provoked 'hey wait a minute - I have no idea that....' [Magidor]
18049 The best tests for presupposition are projecting it to negation, conditional, conjunction, questions [Magidor]
18050 If both s and not-s entail a sentence p, then p is a presupposition [Magidor]
18054 Why do certain words trigger presuppositions? [Magidor]