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Co-textual presuppositions are produced ad hoc by a given textual strategy and hold only within the boundaries of a given text. |
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On the contrary, a theory of meaning can account for p-terms (in our analysis, exclusively verbs), that is, for expressions where the presupposition is part of their coded content and their representation can also predict the result of the negation test. We think that our semantic model can account for different types of verbs (such as verbs of judging, factive verbs, verbs of transition, verbs of propositional attitudes, implicative verbs), that until now have been analyzed according to nonhomogeneous criteria. This model for representing p-terms considers |
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(i) a subject operator S which can take the forms S1 . . . Sn, the S being different Actants or Roles but not necessarily different actors; |
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(ii) a set of semantic primitives (which should be semantically defined by a different portion of the encyclopedia; |
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(iii) an actual world W0; |
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(iv) any possible world Wj; |
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(v) a speech time to and temporal states tj preceding or following the speech time (the speech time being expressed by the tense of the p-verb); |
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(vi) an object O as the object of the action performed by the primitive predicate, that is, what the subject is supposed to do, to want, to be aware of and so on. |
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For example, the semantic representation of to manage (at least the portion of the semantic representation that accounts for the presuppositional character of the expression) appears more or less like this: |
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[S W0t1 TRY (S W0t1 CAUSE (O Wjtj BECOME O W0t0)) and
DIFFICULT (O Wjtj BECOME O W0t0)] S W0t0 CAUSE (O Wjtj BECOME O W0t0) |
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The presupposition [P] is that (i) the subject, in his or her actual world and at a temporal state preceding the time expressed by the tense of the p-term, tried to change a state of the possible world of his or her desires into an actual one and (ii) that project was recognized as difficult to realize. The asserted content is that the same subject succeeded in realizing the project. The negation of the p-term, as in (12) |
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