Presuposiciones y completivas de sujeto (con predicados de afección psíquica)

Abstract

Presupposition has been described, in terms of logic, as a relation between two utterances. The classical example is: The present king of France is bald, which presupposes: There exists at present a king of France. Presuppositions are related to some expressions called presuppositional actualizers. Factive predicates (to lament, to be sorry that, to worry, etc.), which have the property of introducing subordinate clauses with a meaning which is presupposed to be true, are presuppositional actualizers. They are called factives because the clause depending on them can be introduced by the phrase the fact. Other properties which have been described for these predicates are the possibility of the embedded clause being preposed and (in Spanish) the presence of the subjunctive mood in this subordinate. It is important to stress the importance that the concept of presupposition has for the analysis of these sentences from a pragmatic point of view. The speaker lakes a part of what he/she says as something already known, as a background on which another item of information is salient. This item of information is not presupposed any more, it is stated as true. In this article we examine a subgroup inside the factive predicates in Spanish: those of psychic affection (preocupar -to worry-, extrañar -to amaze-, sorprender -to surprise-, divertir -to amuse-, etc.). All these can be accounted for the scheme SUJ-PRED-CIND (Subject, Predicate, Indirect Object) in the active voice. We argue that the predicates of affection are prototipically factives. In contrast with those which have a subordinate in other functional roles the three formal properties mentioned before are present here. This leads us to advance the hypothesis that there exists a relation between the capacity of these verbs of activating presuppositions and the fact that the subordinate clause is made the grammatical Subject.