presupposition
See also: présupposition
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle French présupposition, from Latin praesuppositio, from the past participle stem of praesuppōnere (“to presuppose”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editpresupposition (countable and uncountable, plural presuppositions)
- An assumption made beforehand; a preliminary conjecture or speculation.
- 2010, Guy Deutscher, Through the Language Glass, Arrow, published 2011, page 40:
- He made one cardinal error in his presuppositions about the relation between language and perception, but in this he was far from alone.
- The act of presupposing.
- (linguistics) An assumption or belief implicit in an utterance or other use of language.
- 1971, Paul Kiparsky, Carol Kiparsky, “Fact”, in Danny Steinberg, Leon Jakobovits, editors, Semantics: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 351:
- For instance: a verb might convey someone's evaluation of it as a presupposition. To say ‘they deprived him of a visit to his parents’ presupposes that he wanted to visit (vs. ‘spare him a visit...’).
Synonyms
edit- (assumption): assumption, conjecture
Translations
editassumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed without proof
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act of presupposing
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