A Study On Pragmatic Presupposition In The Detective Story-the Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes

Pragmatic presupposition is the assumption made by the speaker about the contextbefore he/she speaks. Pragmatic presupposition is the speaker‘s presupposition becauseit is closely related to the speaker. Pragmatic presupposition depends on the context; itexists in the communicative context during the whole conversation. Therefore, in orderto understand the true implied meaning of pragmatic presupposition, it is necessary tolink it with the context. The detective story is fascinating with its complicated andstrange plots. The abilities of analysis and judgment showed by the detective during theprocess of investigation are amazing. Analyzing and explaining the detective‘s inferenceand judgment process by using the theories of pragmatic presupposition can help topresent how the author sets the suspense, portrays the image of characters, and enhancesthe attractions of the story.This thesis studies the phenomenon of pragmatic presupposition in Arthur ConanDoyle‘s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes based on the pragmatic presuppositiontheories of Stalnaker and Levinson‘s theories of presupposition triggers. The qualitativeresearch and the quantitative analysis are both adopted in this thesis to analyze thedialogues and the text in the story. These studies reveal how the pragmaticpresupposition plays the key role in the process of setting suspense and dealing with theinferences. The characteristics and the functions of pragmatic presupposition are alsopresented in this thesis. Pragmatic Presupposition appears frequently in the story. Thephenomenon of pragmatic presupposition in the story is studied based on three levels:the lexical level, the syntactic level and the discourse level. On the lexical and thesyntactic level, according to Levinson‘s classification about the presupposition triggers,the frequency and the distribution characteristics of the presupposition triggers in thestory are analyzed and generalized. On the discourse level, the identity presupposition,the criminal process presupposition and the social-cultural background presuppositionas well as their features and functions are discussed respectively.The results of the studies show that the presupposition triggers on the lexical levelare more frequently adopted than the syntactic level presupposition triggers. Among thelexical triggers, the definite descriptions have the highest frequency, followed by theverbs and the iterative particles. On the syntactic level, questions have the highest frequency while the cleft sentences have the lowest frequency. The temporal clauses andthe comparative structures have the similar frequency. Pragmatic presupposition hasvital functions in the story. It makes the languages of the detective story more concise,the key information is thus highlighted. The Pragmatic presuppositions in the dialoguescan help portray the image of Sherlock Holmes more successfully. What‘s more, theplots in the story are developed through the presupposition conflicts. Finally, pragmaticpresuppositions can help set the suspense and attract readers‘interests.