< previous page page_248 next page >

Page 248
plicitly asserted. The presupposition deals with some idea of danger connected with the action in question. If there is no danger in performing a certain action, there is no reason to use dare.
dare: [DANGEROUS (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)]Sw0t0 CAUSE (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)
Condescend presupposes that at some previous time the Subject did not want to perform a certain action, and asserts that, at the speech time, he performs it.
condescend: [Sw0t-1~WANT (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)Sw0t0 LET (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)
Refrain presupposes that at some previous time the Subject wanted to perform a certain action, and asserts that the Subject did not perform it.
refrain: [Sw0t-1 WANT (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)]Sw0t0~CAUSE (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)
discourage: [S2w0t-1 WANT (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)]Sw0t0 SAY S2 (~CAUSE (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0))
prevent: [S2w0t-1 WANT (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0)]S1w0t0 CAUSE (S2w0t0~CAUSE (Owjtj BECOME Ow0t0))
2.3.5. Verbs of Propositional Attitudes
Verbs expressing propositional attitudes (such as to know, to be aware of, to believe, and so on) are not usually listed among possible p-terms. In fact, many of them are not p-terms at all. For instance, believe can be represented, according to our model, as
believe: Sw0t0 THINK (Owjtj 23167-0248a.gif Ow0t0)
If S does not believe something, S does not think that the state of affairs representing the world of his propositional attitude corresponds to the actual state of affairs. On the contrary, know seems to be a p-term and can be represented as
know: [Ow0tj]Sw0t0 THINK Ow0tj
since "the speaker presupposes that the embedded clause expresses a true proposition and makes some assertion about this proposition. All

 
< previous page page_248 next page >