Entailment (linguistics)
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Linguistic entailments are entailments which arise in natural language. If a sentence A entails a sentence B, sentence A cannot be true without B being true as well.[1] For instance, the English sentence "Pat is a fluffy cat" entails the sentence "Pat is a cat" since one cannot be a fluffy cat without being a cat. On the other hand, this sentence does not entail "Pat chases mice" since it is possible (if unlikely) for a cat to not chase mice.
Entailments arise from the semantics of linguistic expressions.[2] Entailment contrasts with the pragmatic notion of implicature. While implicatures are fallible inferences, entailments are enforced by lexical meanings plus the laws of logic.[3] Entailments also differ from presuppositions, whose truth is taken for granted. The classic example of a presupposition is the existence presupposition which arises from definite descriptions. For example, the sentence "The king of France is bald" presupposes that there is a king of France. Unlike an entailment, presuppositions survive when the sentence is negated. The negation test can be used to determine the difference between entailment and presupposition.[4] For instance, "The king of France is not bald" likewise presupposes that there is a king of France.[3]
See also
[edit]- Downward entailing
- Formal semantics (linguistics)
- Implicature
- Loaded question
- Logical consequence
- Presupposition
References
[edit]- ^ Beth, Evert Willem (1955). Semantic Entailment and Formal Derivability.
- ^ Murphy, M. Lynne (2010). Lexical Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge Textbooks in Semantics. pp. 31–40.
- ^ a b Sauerland, U (2007). Presupposition and Implicature in Compositional Semantics. Pelgrave.
- ^ Indarti, Gatri Asti Putri (2015-04-01). "Distinguishing Entailment and Presupposition Under Negation Test" (PDF). Language and Language Teaching Journal. 18 (01): 27–38. doi:10.24071/llt.2015.180104. ISSN 1410-7201.
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