The Syntax of Assertion and Presupposition

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of how assertion and presupposition are reflected in the grammar. Since Kiparsky & Kiparsky (1970) and Hooper & Thompson (1973), it's often been suggested that these notions provide the semantic-pragmatic underpinning for a range of complementation patterns, including the licensing of so-called Main Clause Phenomena [MCP]. This paper presents a new large-scale experimental study, investigating the lexical and semantic-pragmatic licensing conditions of four types of MCP (Verb Second [V2], topicalization, speech act adverbs, and scene setting adverbs) in English, Swedish, and German. The central contribution of this paper is demonstrating what precise dimensions of assertion and presupposition are reflected in the grammar: for embedded V2, what matters is the discourse status of the embedded proposition as new vs. Given (in the sense of Schwarzschild 1999); a dimension which cross-cuts both factive and non-factive verbs. The other MCP investigated show no sensitivity to either of the lexical or pragmatic factors investigated. We further show that Givenness is not reflected in a (null) DP-layer, contrary to previous claims.