Research On Pragmatic Presupposition Based On Dynamic Understanding

Presupposition plays a most important role in the studies of meaning. Ever since Frege claimed in 1892's On sense and reference that both the proposition "Kepler died in misery" and its negation presuppose that "Kepler exists", presupposition has aroused great interests among philosophers, linguists and pragmatists and has achieved great research findings from three dimensions, namely logic presupposition (logical truth debate of presuppostion), semantic presupposition (formal expression of presupposition), and pragmatic presupposition (pragmatic interpretation of presupposition). Pragmatic research of presupposition deals with truth value of the proposition in terms of its interpretation in the course of communication, and the common ground theory of presupposition is prevailing; presupposition is either the subset of common ground of the conversation or belongs to the speaker's belief in it. However, the dynamism of presupposition is not sufficiently handled, and the accommodation problem has formed great challenge to the common ground theory. Therefore, analysis of dynamism in presupposition is the key issue: the goal of this paper is to expose the dynamic picture of presupposition and form related theories.The research follows the main line of dynamism and unfolds mainly in three subtasks: to construct speaker-assigned presupposition theory, to investigate relations between presupposition and common ground, and to solve the accommodation problem. In these subtasks the presupposition theory is the central part of the study, the relations investigation is an extension of it, and the accommodation issue is a test for them. The research adopts Kecskes & Zhang's (2009) socio-cultural communication theory and assumed common ground theory as the theoretical basis. These theories have revised and integrated pragmatic theories and views of common ground, and revealed an integral dialectical relation between cognitive, pragmatic and socio-cultural factors in communication. Therefore, the research can benefit from their integral, dynamic perspective. The research method is the formal analysis of the interlocutors' cognitive states by the common knowledge model in modal logic. Discourse communication is a multi-agent process, and the formal analysis can offer a deep, systematic description of the dynamic occurrence of presupposition.The paper consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Three dimensions of presupposition are introduced, in which dynamism has been a great challenge and is the breaking point of the research. Researches goals are proposed, theoretical basis and research methods are introduced, and an outline of the paper is offered. Chapter 2 is the construction of the speaker-assigned presupposition theory. Three important concepts are explained, and the theory is proposed, consisting of three parts: the definition and categorization of speaker-assigned presuppositions, the principles that the interlocutors abide by in presupposing, and the the mechanism for presupposition processing. Chapter 3 investigates relations between presupposition and common ground. Dynamism of presupposition is reanalyzed, the notion of assumed common ground and its dynamism are introduced. Based on this, the relations of presupposition and common ground are revisited, and this calls for more careful treatment of the distinction between presupposition and cultural presupposition, implicature and logical premise. Chapter 4 revisits the accommodation problem. It aims to reinterpret the problem by applying the research findings of Chapter 2 and 3 and test their validity in return. The origins of the problem are reviewed, and problems and weaknesses concerned are analyzed, which reveals that the key point is dynamic understanding of presupposition and its common-groundness. The problem is solved and reevaluated based on the findings. Chapter 5 applies the research to strategic analysis of pragmatic presupposition. Previous analysis is introduced, and stragetic analysis is made both in theory and in case studies of advertisement, humor and interrogation. Chapter 6 is conclusion. It summarizes the innovations of the research, points out weaknesses, and proposes future research.