Psycholinguistic Evidence for Presuppositions: On-line and Off-line Data

Abstract

This paper presents three self-paced reading studies on the processing of presuppositions. In these studies, we investigated the predictions a classical theory of presuppositions would make for the cognitive processing of presuppositions. This concerns mainly the triggering of presuppositions, their verification in a given context and their accommodation in cases where they are not supported by the context. Our studies revealed not only that presuppositions are evaluated on-line, but also that the classical theory of presuppositions makes solid predictions about their processing.