Presupposition in Pragmatics - Conventional Presupposition & Pragmatic Presupposition

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𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 - 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Presupposition refers to the common ground that is assumed to exist between language users such as assumed knowledge of a situation and/or of the world. This may come from sources such as books, television and the internet, or through personal experiences with the world. A speaker says something based on their assumption (or presupposition) of what the hearer is likely to ‘know’, and what they will infer from what they say.
A thing assumed beforehand at the beginning of a line of argument or course of action.
The presupposition is something that you assume to be true, especially something which you must assume is true in order to continue with what you are saying or thinking.
Presupposition examples are given below.
John regrets that he kissed Mary.
He gave up smoking.
The king of France is bald.
Let's explain the types of presupposition.
Conventional presuppositions are less context-dependent than pragmatic presuppositions and are typically linked to linguistic forms. For example, ‘Would you like some coffee?’ suggests the coffee is already prepared whereas ‘Would you like anything to drink?’ does not suggest a drink has already been prepared (Lo Castro 2003 ).
Pragmatic presuppositions, however, are context-dependent and arise from the use of an utterance in a particular context. The following example in the delicatessen section of a supermarket illustrates this. The customers know they need to take a ticket from the ticket machine and wait their turn to be served. The person with the ticket with ‘2’ on it is the next person to be served. B implicates what A has said as an offer of service to them (alone).
A: Customer number two!
B: Ah . . . could I have 250 grams of the honey smoked ham, please?
Presuppositions are crucial to an understanding of what people mean by what they say in spoken and written discourse. Often, we presuppose a person will have a similar understanding to us in terms of what we mean by what we say. It is indeed because people make this assumption that discourse (normally) proceeds as smoothly as it does.