Abstract:The German philosopher and mathematician Frege is the first man to probe into the presupposition. Since 1960s, it became a hot topic in the field of pragmatics. Presupposition can be classified into semantic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. Semantic presupposition adheres to the surface structure and focuses on truth-value condition while the study of pragmatic presupposition is carried out with closely relation to human communication process. In verbal communication, presupposition serves as the adhesive by which the two sides can be understood and their communication can go on smoothly. Thus, the study of the characteristics and the functions of presupposition in verbal communication is a very important subject. This dissertation attempts to study pragmatic presupposition in verbal communication, thus further improving people’s skills of using language and helping people produce proper and efficient utterances. Utilizing and analyzing presupposition can  have some communicative values—realize communicative goal, achieve hidden intention, ensure successful cross-cultural communication, create humorous result and produce ironical effect.

Keywords: pragmatic presupposition; functions; communicative values

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

2.1 Presupposition Studies in the West-2

2.2 Presupposition Studies in China-2

3. Presupposition and Pragmatic Presupposition-3

3.1 Classification of Presupposition-3

3.2 The Characteristics of Pragmatic Presupposition-5

4. Pragmatic Presupposition in Verbal Communication and Its Communicative Values-8

4.1 Pragmatic Presupposition in Verbal Communication-8

4.2 Functions of Pragmatic Presupposition-8

4.3 Communicative Values of Pragmatic Presupposition-12

5. Conclusion-16

Works Cited-17