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Concept in linguistics
Linguistic entailments
are
entailments
which arise in
natural language
. If a sentence
A
entails a sentence
B
, sentence
A
cannot be true without
B
being true as well.
[1]
For instance, the
English
sentence "Pat is a fluffy cat" entails the sentence "Pat is a cat" since one cannot be a fluffy cat without being a cat. On the other hand, this sentence does not entail "Pat chases mice" since it is possible (if unlikely) for a cat to not chase mice.
Entailments arise from the
semantics
of linguistic expressions.
[2]
Entailment contrasts with the
pragmatic
notion of
implicature
. While implicatures are fallible inferences, entailments are enforced by lexical meanings plus the laws of logic.
[3]
Entailments also differ from
presuppositions
, whose truth is taken for granted. The classic example of a presupposition is the existence presupposition which arises from
definite descriptions
. For example, the sentence "The king of France is bald" presupposes that there is a king of France. Unlike an entailment, presuppositions survive when the sentence is negated. The negation test can be used to determine the difference between entailment and presupposition.
[4]
For instance, "The king of France is not bald" likewise presupposes that there is a king of France.
[3]
See also
[
edit
]
References
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edit
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Further reading
[
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