Selecting Presuppositions in Conditional Clauses. Results from a Psycholinguistic Experiment

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an experiment concerning presupposition selection in conditional sentences containing a presupposition trigger in the consequent. Many theories claim that sentences like if p, qq'—where q is the presupposition of the assertive component q'—have unconditional presuppositions, namely, they simply project q. Other theories suggest that these kinds of conditional sentences project conditional presuppositions of the form if p, q. Data collected suggest two results: (i) in accordance with other experiments (by Romoli), dependence between the presupposition q and the antecedent p favors the selection of a conditional presupposition if p, q. (ii) presupposition selection in conditional sentences with a trigger in the consequent is affected by speakers' cognitive load: if speakers are highly cognitive loaded, then they are less disposed to select a conditional presupposition. We conclude by arguing that cognitive load represents a key factor for the analysis of linguistic and philosophical theories of context.

Creation and Extension of Meaning in Professional Communication

“…According to the second viewpoint, "context cannot be separated from the knowledge it organizes, the triggering role context plays and the field of validity it defines" (Bastien 1999). Researchers (e.g., Domaneschi et al, 2016) also study the effect of cognitive effort in interpreting communicative messages involving pragmatic enrichment. Janssens and Schaeken (2016) argue that a major role in interpretation is played by the content of the arguments suggesting that context and content are fundamental in the interpretation process.…”

Presupposition contributions in stand-up comedy (discourse analysis of Raditya Dika’s stand-up comedy on YouTube)

“…Researches on presupposition have been done by many researchers (eDomaneschi, eCarrea, ePenco, eGreco, 2016;Fadly & Kurnia, 2015;Tuna, 2017;Camps, 2012;Oktoma & Mardiyanto, 2013). Presupposition has been researched in the German-language song (Rivai, 2000).…”