Presupposition triggers among verbs

A verb is factive when its entry records one of Karttunen's factivity classes; veridicality is an entailment and does not make a verb factive. A verb triggers a presupposition when it is factive, presupposing its complement; phasal, presupposing the prior state (Aspect.Phasal.denote); implicative, presupposing that what it asserts is a condition for its complement (Implicative.sentence); or an occasion verb, presupposing an eventuality that gave its agent reason to act. Roberts and Simons explain the first two as preconditions of the event the verb describes, and Solstad and Bott identify the last.

References

• [Kar71a]
• [Kar71b]
• [RS24b]
• [SB24]

def Verb.IsFactive (v : Verb) : Prop

The verb is factive when it carries a [Kar71b] factivity class.

Equations

• v.IsFactive = (v.factivity ≠ none)

@[instance_reducible]

instance Verb.instDecidablePredIsFactive : DecidablePred IsFactive

Equations

• x✝.instDecidablePredIsFactive = { decide := !decide (x✝.factivity = none), reflects_decide := ⋯ }

def Verb.IsTrigger (v : Verb) : Prop

The verb triggers a presupposition when it is factive, phasal, implicative or an occasion verb.

Equations

• v.IsTrigger = (v.IsFactive ∨ v.phasal ≠ none ∨ v.implicative ≠ ⊥ ∨ v.senseTag = SenseTag.occasion)

@[instance_reducible]

instance Verb.instDecidablePredIsTrigger : DecidablePred IsTrigger

Equations

• x✝.instDecidablePredIsTrigger = { decide := decide x✝.IsFactive || decide (x✝.phasal ≠ none ∨ x✝.implicative ≠ ⊥ ∨ x✝.senseTag = SenseTag.occasion), reflects_decide := ⋯ }