Объяснение:
To appear in Journal of Pragmatics
Presuppositions as nonassertions*
(1999)
Barbara Abbott
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
Michigan State University
A-614 Wells Hall
E. Lansing, MI 48824-1027
[email protected]
Keywords: presupposition, definite description, old information, common ground, assertion
Abstract: It is commonly assumed that the assertion/presupposition distinction maps fairly directly onto the distinction between new and old information. This assumption is made doubtful by presupposing constructions that regularly convey new information: uniquely identifying descriptions, "informative presupposition" it-clefts, reverse wh-clefts, announcements embedded under factives, nonrestrictive relatives. The presupposed content conveyed by these constructions can be regarded as part of the common ground only with an unconstrained principle of accommodation. But this reduces the claim that grammatical presuppositions are part of the common ground to vacuity.
My Visit to the Theatre
Two weeks ago my parents and I went to the theatre to watch the opera, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky.
My dad had bought tickets for us the day before, so we didn't have to queue at the box office. When we arrived at the theatre, we went to the cloackroom to leave our coats there. Then my mum bought a programme to have a look at the cast. Our seats were in the stalls so we had a great view of the stage and didn't need any opera glasses.
The opera was in three acts, so there were two intervals and the opera lasted about three hours.
At the end I had mixed feelings about the performance. On the one hand I liked the music, the singers' voices and excellent period costumes, but on the other hand I was a bit bored at times.
