Presupposition Triggers In English Abstracts

Presupposition,as both a language phenomenon and communicative strategy,is commonly used in language communication.In recent years,more and more researchers are prone to study presupposition from the perspective of discourse.They studied how writers organize and perceive the whole discourse in accordance with the concept of presupposition.They held that presupposition can be used to organize the information flow in discourse and to infer the implicit information the writer aims to convey.Based on both Levinson's and He Ziran's presupposition theories,this thesis defines presupposition as the background knowledge of both parties of communication,which are triggered by some words and constructions.Accordingly,this thesis aims to analyze the general use and working mechanism of presupposition triggers in English abstracts.And thus to give a systematic and comprehensive discussion of the effects presupposition has on the organization,coherence and economy of academic English abstracts,as well as to provide quite a few suggestions for English abstract writing.Adopting both quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis,this thesis researches the following three questions:(1)What kinds of presupposition triggers are used in English abstracts? Which types of presupposition triggers are most frequently used?(2)How do these types of presupposition triggers invocate presupposition?(3)How are presuppositions used in the construction and understanding of academic English abstracts and what are their functions?In order to research these questions,sixty English abstracts of MA theses in English language and literature from China University of Petroleum are selected as the data bank.And thus thepresuppositon triggers used in these sixty English abstracts are classified and analyzed.It is found that there are twelve types of presupposition triggers used in English abstracts,among which these seven types of presupposition triggers are frequently used,i.e.definite descriptions,factive verbs,change-of-state verbs,non-restrictive attributive clauses,adverbial clauses of time,comparison structures,and questions.By means of information prompting,relation inference and background involvement,presuppositions are triggered.The use of presupposition in English abstracts exert a vital part in the coherence and economy of discourse and in discourse construction.