Presupposition Triggers and Presumptive Interpretation

Pragmatic presuppositions are analyzed considering their relation with the notion of commitment, namely the dialogical acceptance of a proposition by an interlocutor. The attribution of commitments carried out by means of pragmatic presupposition is shown to depend on the reasonableness of the underlying presumptive reasoning, ultimately grounded on hierarchies of presumptions. On this perspective, the ordinary interpretation of pragmatic presuppositions as the “taking for granted” of propositions signaled by semantic or syntactic triggers becomes only the presumptive, prototypical interpretation of a complex linguistic and pragmatic phenomenon. It will be shown how the prototypical interpretation is subject to default in cases of conflicts of presumptions, which lead to reconstructing the speaker’s meaning non-presumptively at a pragmatic, semantic, or syntactic level. The phenomena of presupposition cancellation and neutralization can be explained in terms of presumptive and non-presumptive articulation and interpretation of an utterance, through which the speaker can impose, correct, or refuse implicit commitments

Does Linguistic Communication Rest on Inference?

avec quelques jours de retard, un extrait du Nouvel Obs du début du mois. Même si nous n'avons pas l'accord de l'Institut des Actuaires pour délivrer le titre d'actuaire, le Master Statistique & Econométrie offre une formation poussée en méthodologie statistique et économétrique, avec 2 gros cours d'assurance... ce qui devrait intéresser les compagnies et mutuelles d'assurance. En tous cas la demande est là semble-t-il. Moralité