On Karttunen's Theory Of Presupposition Projection

The notion presupposition was first put forward in the world of philosophy andthen came into the field of linguistics. The early study of presupposition was madefrom the perspective of semantics, which considered it as a relation between twopropositions. In this view, presupposition is defined in terms of the truth or falsity,with no regard for such factors as context, background information andcommunication principles. However, since 1970s it has been gradually found thatmany issues concerning presupposition can not be satisfactorily explained in thesemantic field. Therefore, the study was gradually extended to the field of pragmatics.Pragmatists hold that it is the speaker that has presupposition, and the study ofpresupposition can never be isolated from the uses of the sentences, that is, utterances(He, 2000). As to the notion pragmatic presuppositions, different scholars havedifferent understandings: some (Sellars 1954; Soames 1982) hold that pragmaticpresupposition is speaker's assumption of the context; others (Fillmore 1969; Green1989) hold that pragmatic presupposition is the felicity condition for some speech actsto be performed; still others (Levinson, 1983) hold that pragmatic presupposition isthe shared knowledge of the participants. However, they are the same in one point thatpragmatic presupposition is the mutual knowledge of the participants, In order tofacilitate the discussion, this thesis only deals with the presuppositionat phenomenawhich are triggered by certain surface structures, and it is held that presupposition isthe take-for-granted, given and uncontroversial information in the dynamic course ofcommunication.With Fauconnier's Mental Space theory, the present thesis is a tentative analysisof the presupposition projection problem, explaining under what circumstances andfor what reasons some presuppositions are inherited while others are blocked.Meanwhile, Karttunen's classification of heritage expressions is also discussed atsome length and it is also pointed out that such a classification is not so appropriate.In addition, it is held that presupposition should be studied at different levels. First of all, presupposition is manifested at the semantic level by the uses ofpresupposition-triggers. Then, as the communication goes on, the listener interpretsthe utterances with regards to the contexts, and the presupposition may berecognized, thus plays its role in the understanding of utterances.As one of the key issues concerning presupposition, presupposition projectionhas long been the concern of many scholars. Over the years, a great deal researchwork has been done and a number of theories have been put forward to deal with it,for instance, Karttunen's compositional approach and Gazdar's cancellationapproach. In this thesis, the combinational approach will be the main focus, and itbelieves that presupposition is also a kind of conventional implicature and that somelexical or grammatical structures have the function to govern whether certainpresuppositions are inherited or blocked. What is more, it is also held thatpresuppositions triggered by different lexical or grammatical structures stipulatedifferent inheriting rules and conditions respectively. However, it is not the case inthe actual course of communication. With Fauconnier's Mental Space theory, as wellas the consideration of various contextual factors, the presupposition projectionproblem can be fairly satisfactorily explained. It can be safely concluded thatwhether the presupposition of certain embedded part can be inherited by the wholedepends on whether it is compatible with its parent space, rather than be determinedby certain heritage expressions or certain rules.The whole thesis is divided into five chapters:Chapter one is an introduction to the whole thesis, including the origin of thestudy, the purpose and significance of the present thesis, and the approach and theoryadopted.Chapter two gives an overview of the researches in presupposition, focusing onthe different explanations of semantic presupposition and pragmatic presuppositionmade by the linguists, at home and abroad.Chapter three briefly introduces Mental Space theory, as well as the rules andstrategies put forward by Fauconnier. Mental spaces are partial and temporaryrepresentational structures which speakers construct when thinking or talking about something. They are not part of the language itself, or of its grammars. The rules andstrategies will be the main instrument employed in the course of analysis.Chapter four explains the presupposition projection phenomena with the MentalSpace theory, specifically, the rules and strategies put forward by Fauconnier.Meanwhile, it is demonstrated that Karttunen's classification of holes, plugs andfilters is not appropriate.Chapter five is a conclusion to the whole paper. The notion presupposition isdependent on the speaker's part, so any research of it can never be free of theinfluences of contexts. With Mental Space theory, as well as the consideration ofvarious contextual factors, the projection problem can be satisfactorily explained.