本文是一篇语言学论文，笔者认为语用预设是借助词汇或句法结构等预设触发因素产生的。基于对语用预设在实践中的触发因素的详细分析以及前一章的定量研究，作者打算在本章中对整个论文进行总结。
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
The definition of presupposition is first put forward by a German mathematicianand philosopher Frege in his paper On Sense and Reference in1982 and quicklyarouses linguists’interest.Since the notion was put forward,presupposition has beenstudied in semantic fields in the 1960s,which makes a great contribution to enrichingthis theory.Then in the 1970s,Stalnaker(1999)first notice the close connectionbetween presupposition and context,which means the study of presupposition comesto scholars’view from the perspective of pragmatics.Stalnaker(1999)points out thatproposition P is a pragmatic presupposition made by the speaker in some certaincontext,when the speaker assumes or believes proposition P is true and so does thelistener.Then in his study,he further explains that pragmatic presupposition isassociated with the speaker instead of the sentence.When the speaker makes somestatements,he assumes it is the truth,so communication purposes could be achievedby pragmatic presupposition.At the same time,both the speaker and the listenershould know the background information of communication in(Stalnaker,2002).
语言学论文怎么写
Apart from western scholars,many Chinese scholars also put forward theiropinions on presupposition.He and Ran claim that pragmatic presupposition refers topragmatic inference,which has connection with language structure,but is much moreclosely connected with context.Pragmatic presupposition is a key element inpragmatic reference of discourse perception(He&Ran,2015).
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1.2 Significance of the Research
Pragmatics has developed rapidly since it was introduced into China in the1980s.The theory of pragmatic presupposition has also gradually come into domesticlinguists’field of vision,and become one of the hot topics in linguistics in China.One of linguists’tasks is to apply their knowledge to daily life in order to solve socialissues,in which the courtroom discourse is a vital field for them to put theirprofessional knowledge into practice.Just like what Lu(2006)argues that lawyersintend to use presupposition to hide information while they are cross-examining awitness to get the information they want.According to the previous study,it isimportant to study the presupposition that is adopted by lawyers during inquiries.
This thesis will analyze the pragmatic presupposition employed in The Practiceto find out the ways of triggering a pragmatic presupposition and the features andfunctions of presupposition.The analysis of the pragmatic presupposition in ThePractice not only has its theoretical significance but its practical significance.Initially,to put academic knowledge into practice,studying American legal drama couldenrich its theoretical foundation.Searching materials could help readers have adeeper understanding of language essence.This research may help a lawyer equiphimself with more linguistic skills to interrogate the witnesses or defendants,whichcould improve the trial efficiency.In addition,defendants or witnesses who knowmore about this skill could recognize the traps set by a lawyer during inquiries so thatthey will not be treated unjustly.At the same time,there are an increasing number ofpeople who love watching this kind of drama.With some professional knowledgethey could understand what a lawyer says more easily.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Previous Studies on Presupposition
Presupposition is studied from three aspects:philosophy,semantics andpragmatics.Previous studies on presupposition first began with a Germanphilosopher Frege,and then became a topic of semantics and pragmatics.Truth-valueproposition is the main idea of logical presupposition.Semantic presupposition takesthe relationship between the meaning of sentences and presupposition as its mainconcern.While the pragmatic presupposition takes context into consideration.
2.1.1 Previous Studies on Presupposition Abroad
It has long been known that presupposition is extremely hard to define.Up tonow,no agreement has been reached although many scholars have been trying theirbest to give it a definition all the time.There are different definitions according todifferent theoretical backgrounds.These different definitions apparently show thatscholars have different understandings of presupposition.Before concluding thenature of it,it is vital to review the different definitions given by scholars.
The concept of presupposition was first put forward by a German scholarGottlob Frege in his paper On Sense and Reference,in 1892.He says,“If anything isasserted there is always an apparent presupposition that the simple or compoundproper names used have a reference(Frege,1982:69).”It is clear that a sentence canpresuppose the concluded references of the proper noun.That is to say,the sentencecan presuppose the existence of the objects in it.
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2.2 Previous Studies on American Legal Dramas
Current American dramas are mainly pided into the following types:sitcoms,soap operas,drama series and so on Shui(2018).He thinks legal drama intends todisclose American legal culture by describing the main characters’images,and thecivil or criminal cases they are involved in.These dramas also attract overseasaudiences.So why people in the world are attracted by them has aroused scholars’attention.There are many scholars at home and abroad doing research about themfrom different perspectives.
2.2.1 Previous Studies on American Legal Dramas Abroad
In the early 1900s,American legal drama showed its first appearance,whichbecame mature in film making in the 1950s.This kind of drama can be treated as anideological legal environment in America.Based on legal plots,they describe lawyers,courtroom trials,and laws which are associated with justice.This kind of dramas arenot deep,philosophical studies,but they do arouse some topical concerns and askwhether these concerns are tackled by law in a fair way(Papke,2001)studies focuson different perspectives of American legal dramas which are not confined to theapplication of pragmatic presupposition.They instead pay attention to all kinds ofobjects such as details in court,psychology,English teaching,ethics as well as lawand so on.Such as Gwen(2015),Kurt(1985),and Philip(1988).
Apart from these,many scholars also pay attention to lawyer’s language.InLegal Drama and Its Finest,Machlowitz(2014)analyzes an American legal dramacalled A Soldier’s Play.In this article,the author summarizes the features of lawyer’slanguages.Kate(2013)elaborates on her experience of creating an index.She triesher best to explore the issues including indexing of minutes.Johnson(2019)concludes several common plea bargains from the Law&Order.In this drama,a lotof evidence could prove the defendant is guilty.Being in this situation,the lawyerwould discuss an agreement with the prosecution and persuade his client to accept theagreement or he would be published more seriously.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework............................17
3.1 The Definition of Pragmatic Presupposition.......................17
3.2 Presupposition Triggers..................................19
Chapter Four Analysis of Pragmatic Presupposition in The Practice..................25
4.1 Analysis of Presupposition Triggers..............................25
4.1.1 The Application of Presupposition Triggers.....................25
4.1.1.1 Presupposition at Phonetic Level..........................25
4.1.1.2 Presupposition at Lexical Level................................27
Chapter Five Conclusion............................50
5.1 Main Findings................................50
5.2 Limitations....................................52
Chapter Four Analysis of Pragmatic Presupposition inThe Practice
4.1 Analysis of Presupposition Triggers
Pragmatic presupposition triggers play a key role in generating presupposition.In this section,the author analyzes the application of presupposition triggers in theAmerican legal drama The Practice and tries to dig out how the lawyers achieve theirpurposes by using pragmatic presuppositions.
4.1.1 The Application of Presupposition Triggers
With the help of certain lexical items and syntactic structures,presuppositiontriggers can generate presupposition.In order to make a detailed description,theauthor chooses several representative examples of each kind of presupposition in thecollected data to analyze.
4.1.1.1 Presupposition at Phonetic Level
Presupposed information can be conveyed by implicit clefts with stressedconstituents.Levinson says,“The particular presuppositions that seem to arise fromthe two cleft constructions seem also be triggered simply by heavy stress on aconstituent”(Levinson,1983:183).The speaker deliberately stresses a certain wordor phrase to attract the attention of the listeners.The speaker changed his intonationon purpose on the information he intends to emphasize so that he could conveypresupposed information.And in this section,the author intends to analyze this kindof trigger applied in The Practice.
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Chapter Five Conclusion
5.1 Main Findings
Presupposition is a complicated linguistic phenomenon which has been studiedin various fields.As a powerful linguistic tool,it is usually used by lawyers to conveypresupposed information.After analyzing the presupposition triggers and function ofthe collected data from The Practice,the author finds that not only lexical words andsyntactic structures but also phonetic stresses can be used to trigger presuppositions.Lawyers can make the inquiry under control by using these presupposition triggers sothat they can get the information they require.The presupposition triggers of lexicallevel are used to convey implied information,which is difficult for listeners torecognize.Definite descriptions are frequently used in The Practice to presuppose theexistence of something.Definite descriptions such as“the”and proper nouns areusually applied by lawyers during cross-examination.Factive verbs have the powerto explain further information and generally the witnesses will fall into these trapswithout a second thought.As a result,they are usually employed by lawyers.Implicative verbs can be adopted to trigger presupposition because of theirimplicative meaning and these verbs are constantly used to get crucial evidence.Theverbs of judging can convey presupposed information themselves,which is unrelatedto the speakers.The information presupposed by these verbs is the negative attitude.Change-of-state verbs can be adopted to cancel previous states.Most of the time,people pay more attention to the present situations instead of the previous conditions,so the witnesses or defendants might fall into the traps by denying the currentsituation.That is why lawyers prefer to use this trigger to lead defendants to admittheir crimes.
reference(omitted)