Pragmatic Presupposition And The Reasoning Stories Of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is recognized as the pioneer of detective stories. He initiated the narrative pattern and the triangle relationship of character of detective reasoning stories which become the model of modern detectives.Presupposition, in pragmatic sense, is the known information not asserted by the speaker but expressed in a communicative activity. Since the first introduction of pragmatic presupposition by Stalnaker in 1970, the research on pragmatic presupposition has become the focus of linguists. Presupposition, especially pragmatic presupposition, is the effective analyzing device of reasoning stories and it is the pre-condition of a complete reasoning process.Based on the studies of former masters on Allan Poe, the thesis attempts at the using of pragmatic presupposition to analyse Poe's reasoning stories from the aspects of personal presupposition(direct personal presupposition and converse personal presupposition), context presupposition, background presupposition and addressee presupposition and identifies how they were used by Poe to structure the texts in Poe's three reasoning stories in the hope that it might be conductive to the reading and understanding of Poe's reasoning stories for it provides the clue for the detective reading of the reader. Through the analysis, the study reveals the fictional detective Dupin's prowess at using logic and careful observation to solve cases and Poe's talent as a forerunner of detective stories. Finally, the study comes to the conclusion: Presupposition, especially pragmatic presupposition has great...