Abstract

This paper provides a normative/prescriptive account of the act of presupposing, and it argues that some presuppositions are conventionally triggered. After providing an initial intuitive characterization of presuppositions, the paper introduces the influential Stalnakerian account, and shows how the well-known practice of informative presupposition puts heavy strain on it. It then explains how a prescriptive account deals well with that problem, and how it accounts for what is known as the Triggering Problem for presuppositions.