Presuppositon Projection in Belief Contexts

Abstract

In this paper, I review satisfaction theory and binding theory of presupposition projection in dealing with presuppositions in belief contexts, and show that a presupposition triggered in a belief context can be accommodated more than once, and that this is not a pragmatic matter, as Geurts (1998) claims. Behind this claim lies the assumption that belief contexts as well as the main context are information states and that a presupposition triggered in a belief context is accommodated to all accessible information states. I furthermore claim on the basis of the strongest meaning hypothesis that the preference order among the possible readings of a sentence is determined by the strength of each reading. Finally, I give the semantics of believe-statements to support the claims in this paper. I also discuss want-statements, but presuppositions from a desire context behave like those from a belief context as far as accommodation is concerned.