Glossary term B

Background Relation

A background relation is an interpropositional relation in which one or more propositions are provided as information necessary for the proper understanding of some other proposition(s).

(English)

In the following construction, the first proposition provides background information for the second:

  • Someone left a coffee cup in my office; would the owner please come and get it?
  1. Matthiessen and Thompson 1987, 26
  2. Mann and Thompson 1987b, 53–54
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