A Study Of Presuppositional Properties Of TOO

This thesis is an attempt to conduct a word study of too within the framework of presupposition, aiming at probing its a logico- semantic functions in sentence and discourse. The question why a too-accompaniment can be accommodated to a group of antecedents has not been solved convincingly. Seeking a more persuasive approach has substantially necessitated the present study of too.The study of presupposition can be made from two approaches: semantic and pragmatic. Presupposition has the following four properties:1) Some presuppositions are derived by triggers such as too, even, again.2) Presuppositions are not expressed by words but implicit.3) Presuppositions are in the state of vacillation.4) Presuppositions are the necessary condition of the sentence. These presuppositional properties will be proved to be important to the research of too. Too- carrying sentence is composed of two parts: the first part is named Antecedent, and the second one too-accompaniment. The relationship between the antecedent and too-accompaniment is quite similar to the properties of presupposition, namely,1) The missing antecedents can be. induced by too-accompaniment;2) Antecedent is often integrated into context, not explicit;3) One too-accompaniment can trigger a group of antecedents;4) And antecedent is regarded as the necessary condition of the accompaniment (or sentence).Accordingly, a conclusion is drawn: antecedents are presuppositional in nature, presuppositional antecedents are not equivalent to presupposition, but only mean that the antecedents play the role ofpresuppositions. The presupposition of a sentence is generally expressed as someone did something at sometime. In this expression, someone, something, sometime are variables, which can be specified indefinitely. This is the reason why a too-accompaniment can be accommodated to a group of antecedents.The fact that the antecedent of too-carrying sentence is presuppositional in nature shows that this antecedent is crucially used in establishing the point of the too-accompaniment. What the antecedents express is a certain behavior, certain nature, or a certain state; and too singles out the different parts from the accompaniments, and adds new information to the behavior, the nature or the state conveyed by antecedent, affirming what is added is like that to which it is added.Concerning the performance of presuppositonal too in discourse: too has effect on discourse information flow. In communication, too has the function of anaphoricity, contrasting, reminding as well as informing.By making a research on adverb too, we found that the introduction of presupposition provides us with an effective approach to the study of too and the like, and this approach is also helpful to language learners in the language practice.