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Title of Journal: Synthese

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Abbravation: Synthese

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Springer Netherlands

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10.1002/ca.980040306

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1573-0964

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On denying presuppositions

Authors: Lenny Clapp
Publish Date: 2016/03/08
Volume: 194, Issue: 6, Pages: 1841-1900
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Abstract

Strawson in Mind 59320–344 1950 Theoria 30296–118 1964 argued that definite NPs trigger presuppositions as an aspect of their conventional meanings and this semantic conception of presupposition triggers is incorporated into the binding theory of presuppositions van der Sandt in J Semant 9333–377 1992 and Geurts in Presupposition and pronouns 1999 The phenomenon of presupposition denials however presents a problem for the semantic conception of presupposition triggers for in such denials the alleged semantic presuppositions seem to be “cancelled” by a negation operator Geurts in Language 742274–307 1998 Presupposition and pronouns 1999 attempts to solve this problem by utilizing the binding theory’s allowance for local accommodation Geurts’ proposal however is inadequate primarily because Geurts formulates the binding theory within discourse representation theory DRT which makes no allowance for the illocutionary force of denial Asher and Lascarides’ in J Semant 15239–299 1998a J Semant 1583–113 1998b The logics of conversation 2003 segmented discourse representation theory SDRT however has the resources to account for the illocutionary force of denial Utilizing a version of SDRT I demonstrate that the “cancelling” of a presupposition by echoic negation in presupposition denials crucially depends upon the denial of information that is pragmatically communicated by accommodationI presented preliminary versions of this paper at the following conferences and colloquia the Workshop on Language and Interpretation held at UNAM March 20–23 2013 the University of Kentucky Philosophy Colloquium and Linguistics Seminar Series October 4 2013 the University of Iowa Philosophy Colloquium November 15 2013 the Phling Workgroup at Northwestern University November 22 2013 and the meeting of the Pacific Division of the APA San Francisco CA April 16–20 2014 I am grateful to all the participants in these events who pushed me to clarify my views but in particular I would like thank Robin Carston Bart Geurts Tim Sundell Michael Glanzberg Benjamin Rohrs and Dylan Sabo for their helpful and challenging feedback Finally this paper has been revised substantially in response to comments from several anonymous referees for Synthese The paper benefited from their detailed criticisms and I am grateful for their assiduous service to the profession

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