Open AccessImpossible Presuppositions. On factivity, focus, and triviality
Author(s) -
Matías Verdecchia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
glossa
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2397-1835
DOI - 10.16995/glossa.5879
Subject(s) - presupposition , focus (optics) , linguistics , predicate (mathematical logic) , emotive , epistemology , argument (complex analysis) , philosophy of language , triviality , philosophy , perspective (graphical) , metaphysics , computer science , cognitive science , sociology , psychology , mathematics , artificial intelligence , pure mathematics , physics , biochemistry , chemistry , optics , programming language
This paper analyzes certain restrictions on polarity focus marking in clauses embedded under emotive factive predicates. It argues that these restrictions arise because this configuration leads to a systematic presupposition failure in virtue of its focus value, which I call impossible presupposition. The main argument offered here supporting this approach involves some novel asymmetries with factive clauses in predicate doubling construction in Spanish. From a theoretical perspective, the larger agenda of this article is to provide new evidence that certain types of ungrammaticality are due to semantic-pragmatic factors, namely, logical triviality.