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tions are actualized and acquire a positional power, which obliges A to accept them. So, at the level of the semantic model, presuppositions are instructions for the correct use of the item, but, at the level of specific textual occurrence, they become part of the content that the Speaker transmits to the Addressee through the utterance. |
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There is, however, no conflict between these two functions. Presuppositions are both content elements and elements of context because they are instructions and functions from intensional representations to contextual actualizations. So the use of p-terms can effect specific discourse strategies. Consider a dialogue such as the following between mother and child: |
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(30) Mother: Please, John, stop playing with the ball; you will break the window. |
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Child: (Does not stop and breaks the window.) |
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Mother: Ah, you finally managed to do that! |
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By using manage, the mother not only asserts that John broke the window but also presupposes that he wanted to break it. Since manage has been introduced into the discourse, it is hard to deny this presupposition of intentionality. (John would have to use a metalinguistic negation to challenge his mother's right to use the word manage.) |
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Consider the situation in which a sentence like the following might be uttered: |
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(31) Do you know? Yesterday Bill managed to come on time! |
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Clearly the Speaker is conveyingvia presuppositions carried by the p-term managethat it was not easy for Bill to come on time. In so doing he imposes upon the discourse the assumption that Bill is not a punctual person, and this assumption becomes, for A, part of the context. |
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Consider the following case: |
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(32) S: Mr. Smith, believe me, I really regret what happened. |
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A: My God! What happened? |
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By using regret, S makes A sure that something really happened, even if A did not know anything before. In other words, the p-term creates expectations about what the context will be. |
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