Presupposition and Anaphoricity

  • Published : 2001.09.01

Abstract

This paper is to reconsider the relation between presupposition and anaphoricity. My proposal goes as follows: First, the anaphoricity view of presupposition is problematic in that it heavily relies on accommodated antecedents, and this will end up depriving the view of much of its content. So, it is suggest that accommodation should be taken as a mechanism to add presupposed new information to the context, like an asserted proposition. Next, I show that, between two prominent theories of presupposition projection, both of which commit themselves to the anaphoricity view, van der Sandt's theory is quite compatible with the revised view of accommodation, but Heim's theory isn't, because anaphoricity is at the heart of its projection mechanism. Finally, I suggest that unaccommodatable presuppositions should be explained not by the properties of presupposition itself, but by the lexical properties of presupposition triggers.

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