Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Actual Presupposition

Definition: 

An actual presupposition is any potential presupposition that is not canceled by its context.

Examples: 

(English)

The utterance John says that the king of France is bald has two potential presuppositions:

  • There is someone identified as John.
  • There is a king of France.

Of these two, only the presupposition that there is someone identified as John is an actual presupposition, because the second presupposition is reported.

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