Date

2022-8-26

Author

Çağırıcı, Ecenur

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Presuppositions embedded in the consequent of a conditional sometimes project as conditional presuppositions. In this thesis, two experiments were conducted to investigate conditional presuppositions in a probabilistic framework and to test whether prior beliefs play a role in the projection of conditional presuppositions. Three types of relationships between different situations and physical objects were established (entailing, related, unrelated). Experiment I measured prior beliefs about owning the object depending on the situation. As expected, when the situations were negated, owning the object was more likely in entailing situations than in unrelated situations, and gradual prior beliefs were observed depending on the situation. Experiment II tested presupposition projection in the same scenarios by adapting them into conditional sentences. Results showed a similar pattern of probabilities when the antecedent was denied and the probability of the presupposition was measured. Experiment II also tested the use of Modus Tollens in conditional presuppositions. When the presupposition was denied and the probability of the antecedent was measured, only entailing antecedents received a very low rating, suggesting that participants obtained a conditional presupposition only in conditionals whose antecedent makes the presupposition highly likely.

Subject Keywords

experimental pragmatics, presupposition, conditionals, presupposition projection

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/99388

Collections

Graduate School of Informatics, Thesis