Presuppositional effects and ostensive-inferential communication

In this paper, we argue that presuppositions fall within the scope of ostensive-inferential communication, and present the benefits of this proposal. On the one hand, by treating presuppositions as part of what is ostensively communicated by the speaker, we can provide a unified account of so-called 'informative' presuppositions, and presuppositions that are part of the 'common ground'. On the other hand, by treating presuppositions as the output of an inferential process of pragmatic interpretation, we can explain their context-sensitivity as well as the way in which their propositional content is constructed through a process of 'mutual parallel adjustment' with the explicit content of the utterance and its implicatures.