PRESUPPOSITIONS

A presupposition is knowledge taken for granted in the receiver, to simplify communication and reduce the use of linguistic and paralinguistic signs.

For instance a woman wearing a white dress with a tulle veil in the western world is a bride.

We usually use presuppositions in our everyday talk, otherwise we’d be too long-winded.

Everyone would order “a glass of water” at the bar without feeling the need to tell the bartender that we’re referring to “a crystal glass full of water”, knowing that he would never understand “a glass composed of water”.

It's evident that the level of cooperation between the actants of communication (sender and receiver) in these cases must be very high, otherwise it would be impossible any communicative exchange.

Assuming that the receiver has certain knowledge that we take for granted may, in fact, be hazardous from a communication point of view.

Stepping into a pub in Ireland and ordering two beers by showing the bartender two fingers to compensate for our bad English means being rude.

The whole comic communication is based on false presuppositions:

Him and her on a bench.

She: You know, I think it's time that we get married

He: Who would like to marry two like us?

The presuppositions are part of the techniques of persuasion and of sending subliminal messages.

They are among the tricks used to push the behavior of the receiver in a given direction.

They move attention from something seemingly unimportant, taking it for granted, while calling for a decision on another item important.

It gives to the receiver the feeling of being able to choose, when in fact the sender decide for him, using this communicative tool.

Whatever the recipient will decide, however, what will the Company had already decided as a primary objective.

"What it is your favorite color for the new car ... black or blue?" (It assumes you’ll buy a new car).

Presuppositions can be useful when we need to send a series of interwoven messages to multiple receivers with different competences, but all potential targets of the same product.