Presupposition Projection and the Semantics of Attitude Verbs

Abstract

Karttunen observed that, if the complement of an attitude sentence presupposes p, then that sentence as a whole presupposes that the attitude-holder believes p. I attempt to derive some representative instances of this generalization from suitable assumptions about the lexical semantics of attitude predicates. The enterprise is carried out in a framework of context change semantics, which incorporates Stalnaker's suggestion that presupposition projection results from the stepwise fashion in which information is updated in response to complex utterances. The empirical focus is on predicates of desire and on the contribution of counterfactual mood.

Conditional Truth and Future Reference

“…The problem of the extra layer of Past in counterfactuals is an interesting one in the present context. While some authors have sought to incoporate its temporal meaning into the semantics of counterfactuals (Tedeschi, 1981;Dahl, 1997, and many philosophers), others, including Dancygier, take it to be devoid of temporal significance (see also Palmer, 1974;Heim, 1992;Iatridou, 2000;Ippolito, 2003). Dancygier suggests that both types of backshift involve a non-temporal reading of otherwise temporal expressions, specifying this reading along the lines of James (1982) and Fleischman (1989).…”

On root modality and thematic relations in Tagalog and English

“…Additionally, we assume that NEED's prejacent and its negation must both be compatible with the modal base, as assumed for want (cf. Heim 1992, von Fintel 1999. Our denotation for NEED is given in (32).…”

Iffiness

“…For a recent discussion see Rawlins 2008. 33 The general idea that consequents are evaluated in a subordinate or derived context is standard in dynamic semantics -see, e.g., dynamic treatments of donkey anaphora (Groenendijk & Stokhof 1991) or dynamic treatments of presupposition projection in conditional antecedents and consequents (Heim 1992;Beaver 1999) or dynamic treatments of counterfactuals (Veltman 2005;von Fintel 2001;Gillies 2007). But exploiting a derived context isn't quite a litmus test for dynamics since that is something shared by a lot of Ramsey-inspired accounts, whether or not they count as 'dynamic'.…”