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Presupposition, Implicature and Context in Text Understanding

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Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1688))

Abstract

This paper examines the roles which presupposition and implicature play with respect to what is asserted by a text and to its context, as a part of the process of text understanding. This process involves constructing and updating the representation of the context. Assertion, implicature and presupposition can be described as three different ways in which changes in the representation of the context are induced. On the basis of such a description, it is claimed that, contrary to most of the literature on the subject (in which presupposition and implicature seem not to be allowed to coexist without being identified with each other), there are reasons for considering presupposition and implicature as two distinct phenomenona.

Thanks to Christopher Gauker and to an anonymous referee for comments on earlier drafts.

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Sbisà, M. (1999). Presupposition, Implicature and Context in Text Understanding. In: Bouquet, P., Benerecetti, M., Serafini, L., Brézillon, P., Castellani, F. (eds) Modeling and Using Context. CONTEXT 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1688. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48315-2_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48315-2_25

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66432-1

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