Presuppositions and Assertions: A Case Study on Acquisition of Most Common Presupposition Triggers in Early Childhood

Abstract

This research aims to find out the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers in early childhood. Children acquire semantic knowledge later than acquiring phonemes and uttering words. At what age the acquisition of lexical presupposition triggers is acquired is the question answered through this research. I also identify the incorrect and sensible usage along with the acquisitional challenge. In order to do so, Brown corpus is utilised. Out of three children Adam, Sara and Eve, Adam’s speech is analysed for the presence of lexical presupposition triggers. Again, a lexical presupposition trigger occurred 189 times in Adam’s speech. The methodology involved two phases. In the first phase, I sifted each utterance carrying again according to age, context, and the status of the utterance. The findings are presented in the form of a table. The next phase involves analysis of the instances collected. Examples are analysed in terms of mere repetitions, frequent use and acquiring a sensible usage of the lexical trigger again. I used comparison tool to analyse the examples further making clear distinction between the phenomenon of assertion and presupposition. The results show that the phenomenon of presupposition is acquired by the age of three and half years. By year four, Adam starts acquiring different syntactic structures involving the usage of the lexical trigger again and shows sensible usage by age five. The acquisitional challenge is the age and lack of interaction with the outer environment. The implications of this research would be that it will prompt to make further research on other children and other lexical triggers in future.