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Page 253
(33) S: I regret. . . .
A: (Frightened.) What?
Because presuppositions are governed by the intensional structure of the encyclopedia, they can be imposed upon A as something posed by S and must be taken into account as elements of context. In this sense, rather than being something which can be submitted to a verification test, language is a mechanism able to create beliefs and to impose a reality asserted in the context (see the semiotic concept of véridiction in Greimas and Courtés 1979).
3. Existential Presuppositions
We will now consider the existential presuppositions associated with definite descriptions and proper names, and their function. This sort of presupposition always seems to be dependent on the structure of such expressions, not on the description of single lexical items. Therefore, existential presuppositions do not depend on a system of signification but are directly conveyed in the communicative process by the very fact of someone's uttering a sentence with the purpose of naming individuals belonging to a certain world. Moreover, it seems that existential presuppositions apply only to the participants involved in the communicative act. The word regret presupposes at any time its embedded clause, but the existence of the individual John in the sentence
(34) Today I saw John.
is pertinent to speakers involved in the communicative situation in which (34) is uttered. In this sense existential presuppositions are contextual presuppositions. Therefore, the analysis of existential presuppositions must consider the pragmatic conditions of textual insertion.
Ducrot (1972) has claimed that definite descriptions and proper names in dialogue and discursive situations are always connected to the topic of conversation and therefore imply a prior knowledge of existence by the participants in the communicative interaction. In other words, if a sentence is about some entity, the existence of this entity has to be assumed as noncontroversial or given. Ducrot's claim, even if it is valid for his purposethat is, the analysis of proper names and definite descriptions in relation to their utterance situationneeds further developments. It is possible to imagine a conversation about the theme ''baldness" in which S utters sentence (35)

 
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