DRT with local contexts

Natural Language Semantics 19 (4):373-392 (2011)
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Abstract

In this note, we reconstruct some results of the DRT analysis of presupposition projection within the theory of local contexts of Schlenker (2009). The latter offered a way to annotate every sentence with variables that denote the various local context sets that play a crucial role in Heim’s satisfaction theory (Heim 1983). In standard satisfaction theories, a presupposition must be entailed by its local context. Here we allow a presupposition to be indexed with other local contexts, and we propose, following van der Sandt (1992) and Zeevat (1992), that presuppositions are preferably anaphoric to the highest possible context. The resulting analysis emulates some desirable results of DRT—notably its solution to the ‘Proviso Problem’ (Geurts 1999). But it arguably improves on DRT in some respects: it can generate genuine conditional presuppositions; and it yields more adequate results for some quantified examples. Several limitations of the theory—some of them quite severe—are also discussed

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Philippe Schlenker
Institut Jean Nicod

Citations of this work

The dynamics of negative concord.Jeremy Kuhn - 2021 - Linguistics and Philosophy 45 (1):153-198.
On denying presuppositions.Lenny Clapp - 2017 - Synthese 194 (6).
The Proviso Problem: a note. [REVIEW]Philippe Schlenker - 2011 - Natural Language Semantics 19 (4):395-422.

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References found in this work

Demonstratives: An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology of Demonstratives and other Indexicals.David Kaplan - 1989 - In Joseph Almog, John Perry & Howard Wettstein (eds.), Themes From Kaplan. Oxford University Press. pp. 481-563.
A Theory of Truth and Semantic Representation.Hans Kamp - 1981 - In P. Portner & B. H. Partee (eds.), Formal Semantics - the Essential Readings. Blackwell. pp. 189--222.
Presuppositions and pronouns.Bart Geurts - 1999 - New York: Elsevier.
On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions.Irene Heim - 1983 - In P. Portner & B. H. Partee (eds.), Formal Semantics - the Essential Readings. Blackwell. pp. 249--260.

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