32 The researcher chooses pragmatics presuppositions because the researcher
would like to figure out what types of presupposition discovered in some countries and states slogans in this world. Pragmatics presuppositions are best
depicted as a relation between a speaker and the suitability of a sentence in a context Levinson, 1983, p. 177. In the pragmatics view of presupposition, the
distinction is usually drawn not between presupposition and entailment, but between presupposition and assertion, where presupposition is the part of the
content of an utterance which is treated as if it is familiar, and assertion is that part which is treated as if unfamiliar, new, or informative Leech, 1974 p. 287.
b. Types of Presuppositions
According to Yule 1996, p. 25-34 there are six types of presuppositions, namely existential presupposition, factive presupposition, lexical presupposition,
structural presupposition, non-factive presupposition, and counterfactual presupposition.
1 Existential Presupposition
Existential presupposition is the basic type of presupposition. It usually presupposes the existence of something in such circumstances. Existential
presupposition is normally triggered by definite descriptions which are formed by using proper names, definite article, demonstrative pronoun and possessives.
Here is the example of existential presupposition: Mary’s car is black.
33 The sentence above shows that there is a person name Mary who has a car which
color is black. Therefore, the sentence above presupposes that Mary has a car.
2 Factive Presupposition
Factive presupposition is a presupposition which has information following verbs like
know
,
realize
,
regret
,
surprised
,
strange
, and a quite large number of other verbs, predicate adjectives, and predicate nouns which take a clause as a
subject or object. The information conveyed in factive presupposition is considered as a fact, meaning that this kind of presupposition presupposes truth of
what is stated. Here are some examples of factive presupposition:
a He did not realize Brad was sick.
The sentence “
he
the person mentioned above
did not realize Brad was sick
” presupposes that there exists a person name Brad, and it is true that the person
name Brad was sick. The other examples of factive presupposition are:
b I was not aware that he was married.
The sentence “
I was not aware that he was married
” presupposes that
he
the person mentioned above was married and
I
the speaker was not aware about that.
c I regretted telling him.
The sentence “
I regretted telling him
” presupposes that
I
the speaker here have told something to
him
the person mentioned above. And the fact that
I
the speaker regret it is true.
34 3
Lexical Presupposition Lexical presupposition is a kind of presupposition that another non-
asserted meaning is understood. Different from factive presupposition, lexical presupposition presupposes an unstated concept.
Here are some examples of lexical presupposition:
a Mr. Bennet started complaining.
The sentence above presupposes that
Mr. Bennet
the person mentioned in the sentence was not complaining before. And the fact is that in the sentence Mr.
Bennet started complaining.
b Don managed to win the competition.
The sentence “
Don managed to win the competition
” presupposes that
Don
the person mentioned in the sentence above intended to win the competition and he
succeeded in the competition.
c Don did not manage to win the competition.
Different from the previous sentence “
Don managed to win the competition
”, the sentence
“
Don did not manage to win the competition
” presupposes that
Don
the person mentioned in the sentence above failed in the contest. But if those two
sentences are combined, those two sentences presuppose that Don tried to win the competition.
d He stopped smoking.
The sentence above presupposes that
he
the person mentioned above used to smoke. And the fact that now,
he
the person mentioned stopped smoking. This
35 sentence shows the shift of how
he
in this sentence used to smoke and then stopped smoking.
e He started smoking.
The sentence “
He started smoking
” is the opposite of the previous example of lexical presupposition “
He stopped smoking
”. The sentence “
He started smoking
” presupposes that
he
the person mentioned in the sentence above did not smoke before. And the fact is that now
he
the person mentioned is starting to smoke.
4 Structural Presupposition
A sentence which is triggered by structural presupposition presupposes that the part of the structure is already assumed to be true.
Here are some examples of structural presupposition:
a When did he leave?
The question “
When did he leave?
” presupposes that
he
the person mentioned in the question has been there before, and the fact is that now he has left.
b Where did you buy the hand phone?
The question “
Where did you buy the hand phone?
” presupposes that the speaker asks where
you
the person mentioned bought the hand phone, and the fact in this question is that
you
someone mentioned in the question have
bought
the hand phone.
c How fast was the motorbike going when it ran the red light?
The question above presupposes that the speaker asks about how fast the motorbike going when it ran the red light and the fact is the motorbike ran the red
light.
36 5
Non-Factive Presupposition Non-factive presupposition is the opposite of factive presupposition. The
information conveyed in non-factive presupposition is considered not true or unreal.
Here are some examples of non-factive presupposition:
a I dreamed that I was famous.
The sentence “
I dreamed that I was
famous” presupposes that I
the speaker
was not famous.
I
the speaker here, dreamed or has desire to be famous. But the fact is that
I
the speaker was not famous.
b Megan pretends to be ill.
The sentence “
Megan pretends to be ill
” presupposes that there exists a person name Megan and she pretends to be ill. In this sentence, Megan is only pretending
to be ill so that another person will think that she is ill. The truth in this sentence is that Megan is not ill.
c We imaged we were in Hawaii.
The sentence “
We imaged we were in Hawaii
” presupposes that
we
the speaker and the people mentioned by the speaker in the sentence imaged that they were in
Hawaii. The truth in this sentence is that
we
the speaker and the people mentioned by the speaker are not in Hawaii. They are only imagining that they
were in Hawaii.
6 Counterfactual Presupposition
In counterfactual presupposition, what is presupposed is not only not true or
unreal
, but also opposing to what is true.
37 Here is an example of counterfactual presupposition:
If you were my brother, you would have told me.
This sentence presupposes that the reader or the listener is not
my
the speaker’s brother.
The sentence “
If you were my brother, you would have told me
” indicates that the speaker wants
you
the person mentioned by the speaker to tell something to the speaker.
In this study, the researcher’s focal point is to find out what types of presupposition where
countries’ and states’ slogans belong to. There are six types of presuppositions mentioned previously and the researcher would like to analyze
the presupposition by firstly analyze the presupposition triggers and then the researcher would like to categorize the presupposition according to its type. The
researcher would like to discuss the presupposition discovered in some countries and states slogans in this world because the researcher finds it interesting to
categorize the presupposition according to its type.
B. Theoretical Framework
Pragmatics presuppositions are not an essential condition to the truth of the falsehood of an utterance, moreover they are necessary to guarantee the felicity of
an act Allan, 2009 p. 724. Not all the presuppositions applied to test whether a sentence is true or false, but merely to show that something does exist. Most of
the time, when two or more people engage in the same conversation, they share all kinds of background knowledge that they have: not just knowledge which is
specific to the situation in which they find themselves, but general knowledge
