Yasutada Sudo (Institute Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure) will give a talk on Monday, February 11 at 4:00 in Machmer E-37. The title and abstract follow.
Title: The Problem of Non-entailed Presupposition: Toward a Multi-dimensional Theory of Presupposition
Abstract:
Presupposition is intensively discussed in the theoretical literature today, and a multitude of competing theories have been put forward that differ both conceptually and empirically (Beaver 2001, Beaver & Krahmer 2001, Chemla 2009, Fox 2008, 2012, George 2008, Geurts 1999, Heim 1983, Peters 1979, van der Sandt 1992, Schlenker 2008, 2009, 2010a,b). The goal of this talk is to contribute to this debate by raising an empirical problem for current theories, and to motivate the 'multi-dimensional' view of presupposition. The key observation is that some predicates have presuppositions that are not entailed by their assertive meanings (in the sense of generalized entailment), which I call 'non-entailed presuppositions'. I claim that when combined with certain quantifiers, predicates with non-entailed presuppositions give rise to meanings that pose a serious challenge for current theories of presupposition. In particular, the problem illustrates the need for a more expressive theory where assertive meanings and presuppositions can be true or false independently from each other. To this end, I advocate a multi-dimensional theory of presupposition. The multi-dimensional view was once popular in the 70's (Karttunen & Peters 1979), but it is now known that it faces an empirical problem called the 'Binding Problem' in quantified sentences. This was once considered to be a fatal problem for the multi-dimensional view and led to the development of modern one-dimensional theories, but I will offer a solution in the second talk.
