WHO:	Craige Roberts , Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University
TOPIC:	Presupposition: The Interaction of Conventional and Conversational Implicature
ABSTRACT:	It is generally assumed that the theories of presupposition of Gazdar (1979) and Heim (1983) are incompatible. Gazdar argues that conventionally triggered potential presuppositions may be cancelled when they contradict other information in the context of interpretation, including conversational implicatures. Heim argues instead that presuppositions are never cancelled, but must be satisfied, entailed by the local context of interpretation. I will argue that one can retain key insights from both theorie s: It is both necessary and sufficient that presuppositions be locally satisfied. In complex contexts this leaves open the question of whether they are globally satisfied as well. Conversational implicatures are not cancelable (Welker 1994); rather, ap parent cancellation is really context revision. These propositions and others in the interlocutors’ common ground must be respected, and (global or local) contradiction is precluded. Hence, in many interesting cases presuppositions can only be satisfied locally, and not globally.ô.
WHEN:	1/31/2003 3:30:00 PM
WHERE:	Lattimore 513

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