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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If Strawson is correct, then 'Pedro's sister' in a context without prior discourse referent produces presupposition failure, not successful accommodation.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Hearers routinely accommodate novel presuppositions without prior discourse (e.g., 'The king of France is bald'), suggesting accommodation is default.
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    • 2.Strawson's presupposition failure predicts odd truth-value judgments; empirical evidence shows speakers evaluate such utterances straightforwardly.
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    • 3.Discourse context matters in degrees, not binary presence/absence; 'Pedro's sister' triggers accommodation in new contexts as readily as established ones.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Strawson argued that presuppositions fail when their truth conditions cannot be evaluated, not when hearers simply lack information.
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    • 2.Accommodation requires hearers to actively adopt new content; without prior discourse, no natural accommodation mechanism triggers.
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    • 3.Definite descriptions like 'Pedro's sister' semantically presuppose uniqueness and familiarity, both absent in null contexts.
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