PRESUPPOSITION AS A CATEGORY OF MACROPRAGMATICS

Abstract

The article deals with the analysis of the sociolinguistic phenomenon of presupposition as a category of linguistic pragmatics.

Purpose. The purpose of the research is to define the peculiarities of the formation and functioning of the pragmatic category of the presupposition.

Methods. This scientific research is based on the descriptive and structural methods of linguistic research, as well as a method of pragmatic analysis. The descriptive method has been used to interpret the pragmatic category of the presupposition between levels. The structural method has been employed to establish internal links between those linguistic elements that form the mentioned category. A pragmatic analysis helps to identify the communicative features of the statements with presupposition.

Results. Based on the analysis, it has been found that in pragmatics, presupposition is considered to be not just a component of the logical structure of the expression, but also an assumption of the addressee about a certain amount of knowledge / ideas of the addresser, as a general fund of knowledge, experience of all participants in the communicational process, as a necessary condition for the success of the implementation of the speech acts. The category of the presupposition has a cross-border nature and therefore is affected by factors of the linguistic and non-linguistic environments. The intralinguistic (structural and grammatical and syntactic) and extralinguistic (communicative and social and cultural) are distinguished as basic for the classification of the main types of the pragmatic presupposition: the presupposition of the speaker, the presupposition of the statement, the presupposition which cannot be reversed, the evaluative presupposition. Lingual and external factors that form the pragmatic presupposition are characterized. Lingual means include factual predicates, verbs to denote the state, repetition of actions, judgments, conditional sentences, temporal and definite subordinate clauses, questions, clear descriptions, constructions with the emphasized elements. External factors are determined by the communicative situation, in the process of which communicators make a number of assumptions about the veracity of the statements heard. We consider the level of knowledge of interlocutors about each other, background knowledge of communicators and information about the topic of the conversation to be the extralinguistic factors of the pragmatic presupposition formation

Conclusions. The pragmatic presupposition is a polyaspectic category due to linguistic and non-linguistic factors, and therefore there are several approaches to its typology. According to the criteria of the agent and the product of the speech action the presupposition of the speaker and the presupposition of the statement/ sentence are distinguished. There is also the evaluative pragmatic presupposition, one of the means of its expression is an unrealistic conditional construction, which logical and grammatical form contributes to understanding not only the information presented in the communication process, but also the personal attitude of the speaker to the facts presented in the sentence / statement.