Presupposition in Ghanaian and British Newspaper editorials

Abstract

The paper explores presupposition and its triggers in Ghanaian and British newspaper editorials. Using a model proposed by Khaleel (2010:529) based on Karttunen (n.d.) and Yule (1996), the researcher analysed thirty (30) editorials from the Daily Guide (Ghanaian) and The Guardian (British) which were published in 2017. The analysis revealed some similarities and differences in the Ghanaian and British newspaper editorials. It was found that the frequently used trigger of the existential presupposition in both newspapers is the definite noun phrase. Again, it was found that the most used to trigger structural presupposition is the relative clause. The noticeable difference between the two is that in the Daily Guide, the structural presupposition is the most triggered (46.1%) whilst the existential presupposition (69.8%) is the most triggered in The Guardian.