Presupposition Triggers Theories on Presupposition

Some further factive predicates: know; be sorry that; be proud that; be indifferent that; be glad that; be sad that. 3 Implicative verbs John manageddidn’t manage to open the door. John tried to open the door. John forgotdidn’t forget to lock the door. John ought to have locked, or intended to lock, the door. Some further implicative predicates: X happened to V X didn’t plan or intend to V; X avoided Ving X was expected to, or usually did, or ought to V, etc. 4 Change of state verbs John stoppeddidn’t stop beating his wife. John had been beating his wife. Joan begandidn’t begin to beat her husband. Joan hadn’t been beating her husband. Kissinger continueddidn’t continue to rule the world. Kissinger had been ruling the world. Some further change of state verbs: start; finish; carry on; cease; take as in X took Y from Z Y was atinwith Z; leave; enter; come; go; arrive; etc. 5 Iteratives The flying saucer camedidn’t come again. The flying saucer came before. You can’t get gobstoppers anymore. You once could get gobstoppers. Carter returneddidn’t return to power. Carter held power before. Some further iteratives: another time; to come back; restore; repeat; for the nth time. 6 Verbs of judging Agatha accused didn’t accuse Ian of plagiarism. Agatha thinks plagiarism is bad. Ian criticizeddidn’t criticize Agatha for running away. Ian thinks Agatha ran away. 7 Temporal clauses Before Strawson was even born, Frege noticeddidn’t notice presuppositions. Strawson was born. While Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics, the rest of social science waswasn’t asleep. Chomsky was revolutionizing linguistics. Since Churchill died, we’ve lackedwe haven’t lacked a leader. Churchill died. Some further temporal clause constructors: after; during; whenever; as as in As John was getting up, he slipped. 8 Cleft sentences A cleft sentence is a complex sentence in which a simple sentence is expressed using a main clause and a subordinate clause. In English the prototypical cleft sentence has the following form: it + be + X + subordinate clause. Take a look the examples: It waswasn’t Henry that kissed Rosie. Someone kissed Rosie. Unclefted sentence: Henry kissed Rosie. What John lostdidn’t lose was his wallet. John lost something. Unclefted sentence: John lost his wallet. 9 Implicit clefts with stressed constituents The particular presuppositions that seem to arise from the two cleft constructions seem also to be triggered simply by heavy stress on a constituent, as illustrated by the following examples where upper-case characters indicate contrastive stress: Linguistics was wasn’t invented by CHOMSKY Someone invented linguistics. cf. It waswasn’t Chomsky that invented linguistics. John diddidn’t compete in the OLYMPICS. John did compete somewhere. cf. It waswasn’t in the Olympics that John competed. 10 Comparisons and contrasts Comparisons and contrasts may be marked by stress or by other prosodic means, by particles like too, back, in return, or by comparative constructions: Marianne called Adolph a male chauvinist, and then HE insulted HER. For Marianne to call Adolph a male chauvinist would be to insult him. Adolph called Marianne a Valkyrie, and she complimented him backin returntoo. to call someone or at least Marianne a Valkyrie is to compliment them. Carol isisn’t a better linguist than Barbara. Barbara is a linguist. Jimmy isisn’t as unpredictably gauche as Billy. Billy is unpredictably gauche. 11 Non-restrictive relative clauses Note that there are two major kinds of relative clause in English – those that restrict or delimit the noun phrase they modify restrictive as in Only the boys who are tall can reach the cupboard and those that provide additional parenthetical information non-restrictive as in Hillary, who climbed Everest in 1953, was the greatest explorer of our day. The later kind is not affected by the negation of the main verb outside the relative clause and thus gives rise to presupposition: The Proto-Harrappans, who flourished 2800 – 2650 B.C., werewere not great temple builders. The Proto-Harrappans flourished 2800 – 2650 B.C. 12 Counterfactual conditionals If Hannibal had only had twelve more elephants, the Romance language wouldwould not this day exist. Hannibal didn`t have twelve more elephants. If the notice had only said ‘mine-field’ in English as well as Welsh, we wouldwould never have lost poor Llewellyn. The notice didn’t say mine-field in English. 13 Questions Questions will generally share the presuppositions of their assertive counterparts. However, interrogative forms themselves introduce further presuppositions, of a rather different kind. It is necessary to distinguish different types of questions: yesno questions will generally have vacuous presuppositions, being the disjunction of their possible answers. There are the only kinds of presuppositions of questions that are invariant under negation. WH-questions introduce the presuppositions obtained by replacing the WH- word by the appropriate existentially quantified variable, e.g. who by someone, where by somewhere, how by somehow, etc. These presuppositions are not invariant to negation. Is there a professor of linguistics at MIT? Either there is a professor of linguistics at MIT or there isn’t. Is Newcastle in England or is it in Australia? Newcastle is in England or Newcastle is in Australia. Who is the professor of linguistics at MIT? Someone is the professor of linguistics at MIT. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

e. The Functions of Presupposition in Advertising

Presupposition has a great deal of importance in persuasive language, particularly in advertising language. Usually advertisers are not allowed to make direct assertion about their products. They can generally make indirect assertions, however, via presupposition. Therefore, advertisers frequently use presuppositions in language to help advertising realize its functions. There are some functions of presupposition in advertising language based on some experts. They are elaborated as follows: 1 Presenting the existence of the product or service According to Sells and Gonzalez 2002, “presuppositions are a crucial part of advertising as they can cause the reader to consider the existence of objects, propositions, and culturally defined behavioral properties”. They state “presuppositions typically involve the existence of some object or idea”. They also state that most product ranges have some cultural values imposed on them in this way. 2 Implicit competition Another function of presupposition is for the sake of implicit competition among advertisers. There is regulation that says “the intent and connotation of the ad should be to inform and never to discredit or unfairly attack competitors” O’Guinn, et al., 2003: 131. Thus, in order to avoid breaking the law, presupposition can be used as comparative device to set implicit competition without directly discredit or unfairly attack competitors. This reflected in the text from Apple Computer Sells and Gonzalez, 2002: I used to think it was my fault PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI that Windows didnt work properly. In that advertisement, “the words do not directly assert that Windows does not work properly, but they presuppose this” Sells and Gonzalez, 2002. This creates an implicit competition between Apple Computer and Windows. 3 Making short and memorable message According to Nilsen 1974, by using presupposition, information can be shared between the reader and advertiser without explanation or a need for convincing. Bovee and Arens also state “effective slogans are short, easy to understand, memorable, and easy to repeat” 1986: 262-274. Therefore, instead of making a long statement listing, advertiser can make a short and memorable statement via presupposition. 4 Establishing a virtual poetic world Advertisers largely rely on presuppositions to set up an economic emphatic poetic text. As stated by Goddard “adverts sometimes come very close to the way concrete poetry works” 2003: 9-21. Presupposition, as a vital device to express more than what is uttered literally, can build an aesthetic language of advertising. Thus, presuppositions in idioms, metaphors, or other figures of speech arrest the reader’s attention.

5. Magazines as the Printed Media

Among all the kinds of print media, newspapers and magazines are the most considerable space for advertisers to buy. However, unlike newspapers that are received by nearly every household in every country, magazines tend to reach PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI