Glossary term P

Presupposition Suspension

A presupposition suspension is the speaker's removal of a previously implied commitment to a presupposition without the denial of it.

(English)

In the utterance John didn’t cheat again, if indeed he ever did, the if clause suspends the presupposition that John ever cheated.

  1. Levinson 1983, 195
  2. Horn 1972
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