Polar Interrogatives and Presupposition Failure in Brazilian Portuguese

An Analysis from the Perspective of Formal Semantics and Pragmatics

Abstract

This research investigates the interaction between the dynamics of interrogative sentences and the phenomenon of presupposition failure within the frameworks of formal Semantics and Pragmatics. The research focuses on polar questions containing definite descriptions, which trigger existence and uniqueness presuppositions. It aims to understand how such failures influence contextual dynamics and under which circumstances the interlocutor accommodates or challenges the presupposition. Furthermore, it seeks to provide a formal description of the pragmatic and conversational effects resulting from these responses. The study is justified by the scarcity of formal analyses of interrogatives in Brazilian Portuguese and by the lack of literature addressing presupposition failures and their implications for conversational interaction. An introspective method was adopted, constructing communicative contexts with polar questions followed by varied responses, which allowed for the observation of accommodation processes, where the hearer integrates the presupposed information into the common ground, and contestation processes, where the presupposition is denied and replaced by an alternative proposition. Examples such as Was the cat from the square adopted? illustrate that responses like I didn’t know there was a cat in the square represent accommodation, whereas responses such as There is no cat in the square or There are many cats in the square exemplify contestation. In cases of existence presupposition failure, contestation prevents the question from being answered, removing it from the question set. In contrast, in uniqueness presupposition failures, the question remains but subdivides to reflect multiple possible referents. In sum, this study contributes to understanding the formal mechanisms governing the semantic-pragmatic behavior of interrogatives in Brazilian Portuguese, highlighting how interlocutors manage presupposition failures and update the conversational context.