The Pragmatic Study Of Presupposition In Literature

As a linguistic phenomenon, presupposition exists in our daily life. To expressour intention successfully or achieve some object, we always apply presuppositionconsciously or unconsciously. The process of study on presupposition is a complexprocess. This thesis analyzes presupposition from perspective of cognition and itsapplication in O.Henry’s short story The Cop and the Anthem. Its analysis can bedivided into three parts. The first part analyzes the functions and classifications ofpresupposition in The Cop and the Anthem. The second part is about presuppositionand language humor in Henry’s short story The Cop and the Anthem. The third parttalks about the relation of presupposition and the context construction of The Cop andthe Anthem.The first chapter is introduction which includes background of study, purpose ofstudy, significance of study and layout of study.The second chapter is literature review. In this chapter, it gives a briefintroduction about the definition of presupposition, the difference betweenpresupposition and entailment, and the distinction of presupposition and implicature.Because this thesis combines presupposition and literary works, so the studies onliterary works from perspective of presupposition are also introduced. At last thischapter gives a brief introduction about several studies on The Cop and the Anthem.The third chapter talks about the function and classification of pragmaticpresupposition in The Cop and the Anthem. This chapter is divided into two parts. Thefirst part talks about the three function of presupposition and their manifestation inThe Cop and the Anthem. The second part talks about the classification ofpresupposition. The four types of pragmatic presupposition is discussed in detail. Togive a better explanation, this thesis extracts instances from The Cop and the Anthemand combines with the theory introduction.The fourth chapter discusses the relationship between presupposition and theproduction of language humor in The Cop and the Anthem. Presupposition has threecharacteristics: appropriateness, common ground and revocability. Through theanalysis of instances extracted from The Cop and the Anthem, the significance ofthese characteristics in production of language humor becomes clear. With presupposition, the understanding and application of language humor will becomemore handy with facility.The fifth chapter analyzes the role of presupposition in the context constructionof The Cop and the Anthem. This chapter can be divided into three parts. The first partgives a brief introduction about presupposition and context construction. The secondpart analyzes the function of presupposition in construction of context in The Cop andthe Anthem. From this part, we can get a knowing that how writer construct a contextwith the help of presupposition. The last part introduces the relation of presuppositionand grammatical cohesion of context in The Cop and the Anthem. To construct acontext, the grammar is an indivisible part. The grammatical cohesive method makesthe context compact, concise and comprehensive.The last chapter concludes the achievements of this thesis. It also points out thedeficiency and gives further proposals.