What is Presupposition Accommodation, Again?

Abstract

Introduction Presupposition accommodation is the process by which the context is adjusted quietly and without fuss to accept the utterance of a sentence that imposes certain requirements on the context in which it is processed. In this paper, I explore some questions about accommodation that are still often asked. There are complaints that the putative process involves mysterious magic and that it is posited only to save a superfluous or wrong theory of presupposition. I argue that these complaints are mistaken: accommodation is not magic and is needed. The paper has two parts: 1. Sections 1–4 explain the common ground theory of presupposition and defend the need for and the propriety of accommodation. 2. Sections 5–7 address some further questions about accommodation and are somewhat more speculative.