Presuppositions in Spoken Discourse

Accommodation and Presupposition
point of the story, it is used in a way that is directly counter to our characterization
of presuppositions as backgrounded information. The same clues are found in the
following example. The presupposition is made in the context of the speaker telling
a story and the information presupposed is the focus of the story.
(13) factive, triggered p: there were also about twenty-five cows (2-11a 89)
Speaker A and sun trying to come through#|
Speaker b oh~|
Speaker A and horses mucking about# bottom of the [?] ha ha#|
Speaker b [m]~|
Speaker A [ho ho]# [hi hi]# I don‘t know what it‘s called#|
Speaker b (laughs)~|
Speaker A Ho ho . ( . giggles) thing# you know
Speaker b Yes~|
Speaker A They all came forward#|
Speaker b +Ah+~|
Speaker A +And [dh@] .+ there were two two two mares {in the field} which was .
rather extraordinary# cos then we discovered that there were also
about - twenty-five cows# *( - laughs)~|
Speaker b *( - . laughs) [a r]*~|
Speaker A Who sort* of loafed about -#|
Speaker b [M]~|
In the next example, one of the main clues that the speaker believes the
information to be hearer-new is that the speaker seems to be trying to convince the
other discourse participants, offering the presupposed information as an additional
reason. Again, the presupposed information is foregrounded. However in contrast
to the two earlier examples. Speaker C is not noticeably surprised and seems to
accept the presupposition as well as the rest of the argument.
(14) factive, triggered p: doing many things which they could do quite legally would
mean the death of ? fiddling (unclear) (1-13 1089)
Speaker C *[m] . [?m]* - - -#|
Speaker B But Laurie [?] . [d@?@] . do you find# because yours is an international
company -#that [dh@z] a lot of getting round the British tax laws#|
Speaker a No~|
Speaker B No#|
Speaker a Because . Quadrille . is . both a big company and therefore . has to
watch its Ps and Qs - and because it is a company which has always
been . ultra honest - and also because . the eye of everybody is on .
international companies now - it . not not only obeys the letter of the law
but the spirit of the law - . [@] so that they are very legal~|
Speaker C [M] .#|
Speaker a And don‘t do many things which . they could do quite legally . because
they know that this would be the death - fiddling * idea*~|
Speaker C in the long run# it *would be bad for trade* .yes#|
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