Presuppositions in Spoken Discourse

Chapter 5
there cannot be a link because there is no context. Presuppositions can be used in
discourses without a linguistic antecedent just because the context allows them to
make a link with the preceding discourse. The context and the link between it and
the presupposed information makes accommodation felicitous.
If the descriptive content contributed by an utterance where too appears is
specific enough or constrained enough in the context where it is used so that any
ambiguity in interpretation is ruled out, then the presupposition triggered by too
should be able to accommodate as well. This is also what we find in the one
example of a plausible case from the corpus data of a presupposition triggered by
too that needs to be accommodated:
(42) An example of too triggering a presupposition that has to be globally
accommodated (2-14 411)
Speaker A He doesn‘t see why you should make - bother to make [pr] why you
should - - be feel forced to make provision for the disabled . particularly
the wheelchairs who are the voluble ones and I agree with him there -
in both . underground and - [@m] buses so long as one form of [tra]
public transport *is* available that should be reasonable -
Speaker C *[M]*
Speaker A [@m] and he said the Swedes have gone absolutely overboard on
making everything possible for the disabled which also emerged in
passing from this paper *. and he says.*
Speaker C * They‘re probably richer.*
Speaker A Yes, but he says now they‘ve spent all this money they‘re finding they
can‘t afford to keep it up
Speaker C Oh . [m], yeah.
Speaker A (laughs - )
Speaker C Couldn‘t you have all loos . designed so that [dei] disabled people can
use them too? **
Speaker A * I think you could, yes.*
In the above example the presupposition triggered is that someone other than
disabled people can use all loos. This presupposition can be accommodated and the
resulting meaning is clear, non-disabled people are able to use all loos now. There
are two reasons why accommodation here is felicitous. First, the theme is that all
loos can be used, something that is trivially true. Second, individuals actually only
belong to one of two categories, they are disabled or they are not disabled. Because
the focus element in the utterance with too is disabled people the most likely focus
element for the presupposition is non-disabled people. These two factors make
accommodation felicitous.
Expressions with greater descriptive content accommodate easier because
they are more able to be linked in some way with the context, but, as the above
examples shows, only if there is a context. Presuppositional expressions can have
arguments that may be already given in the discourse so that part of the
presupposed information is immediately able to be integrated in the discourse
record when the presupposition is triggered. Heim (1982) argues that this type of
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