Processing Presuppositions: Theoretical Aspects, Linguistic Features and Sensorimotor Correlates

Natural languages have a large number of words and constructions that simultaneously convey two pieces of

information. They are known as presupposition triggers. For instance, Paul stopped smoking asserts that Paul

does not smoke (the so-called main content) and presupposes that he has been smoking (the so-called

presupposition). Although there is a vast descriptive and theoretical literature on presuppositions, the possible

differences in the cognitive processing between the two pieces of information remains to a large extent uncharted.

Given the importance of presupposition triggers in everyday language, in particular in argumentative discourse

(Chilton, 2004) and in language learning (Owens, 2015), it is crucial to determine how our brain deals with

presuppositions and to take the results of this investigation into account to shed light on the use of presuppositions

in human culture and communication.