Presuppositions and Pronouns - Nijmegen Centre for Semantics

CHAPTERS
5
Attitude reports
Although the literature on attitude reports is probably even larger than the
presupposition literature, surprisingly little ink has been spilled on the
interaction between presupposition inducers and attitude verbs. I don't have
an explanation for this discrepancy, but it is certainly not as if the problems
posed by presuppositions triggered in attitude contexts weren't challenging
enough. For, as will be show in § 5.1, such presuppositions give rise to a
number of perplexing puzzles. In § 5.2,1 I turn to Heim's (1992) theory, which
is an attempt to solve some of these puzzles, and criticize her solution on
several counts. In the remainder of this chapter I present my own proposal.
To begin with, I define an extension of DRT in which attitude reports can be
represented (§§ 5.3 and 5.4). I then argue that the verb believe triggers a
certain presupposition and that this presupposition determines the
projection behaviour of the verb (§ 5.5). This analysis yields predictions
which are incomplete in the sense that they do not fully account for speakers'
intuitions about presuppositions and anaphors in belief contexts. In § 5.6,1I
suggest that this is as it should be because we may assume on independent
grounds that there is a class of plausibility inferences which complement the
predictions of the binding theory. In the final section, the analysis is extended
to the verb want (§ 5.7).
5.1 Presuppositional expressions in attitude contexts
There are at least two reasons why presuppositions that are triggered within
the scope of an attitude verb are more problematic than others. One is that
attitude contexts are a notoriously difficult area in their own right. The other
is that in attitude contexts the pre-theoretical notion of presupposition,
which otherwise is quite secure, starts tottering. Consider a simple example:
(1) Louise believes that her niece lives in Leeds.
In (1) the definite description her niece occurs within the scope of the attitude
verb believe. We would normally be entitled to infer from an utterance of this
sentence that (the speaker believes that) Louise has a niece, and it may be
PRESUPPOSITIONS AND PRONOUNS, Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface, Vol. 3
B. Geurts - © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved