Cleft Sentences and Counterfactual Conditionals: Students’ Common Ground Enhancing Presuppositional Interpretation

Abstract

The paper explors the use of presupposition in cleft sentences and counterfactual conditionals triggers. It attempts to determine which kind of presupposition strategies that Iraqi EFL university students follow in doing so. A diagnostic test (which consists of six items, each 3 items have a certain type of the presupposition triggers) is administered to a sample of 50 4th year students. An extended model includes Geurts' (1999) presupposition triggers and Domaneschi’s (2016) presupposition strategies is used to elicit strategies that are employed by EFL students in order to approach the pragmatic interpretations of presupposition for cleft sentences and counterfactual conditionals triggers. The data are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The paper infers that Iraqi EFL university students are familiar with the presuppositions of counterfactual conditionals more than the cleft sentence triggers. Relationally, resolution strategy is preferred to the accommodation and rejection strategies.