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The analysis of presupposition triggers in the UNICEF’s article titled “Transforming lives with flexible funding” on the global humanitarian crisis
1. Introduction
The scientific study of language that contains a various components such as words, grammar and sounds is called linguistics. It investigates the way that the languages are structured, their historical development and its social contexts functional. Linguists seek to understand the complexity of communication and the mental processes behind how words are used by examining language (Aronoff, 2020). Pragmatics is the part of linguistics which examines how communication context impacts on word and phrase meaning. It focuses on how people use language in daily life situations, tone, intention and accounting for social conventions. Essentially, pragmatics aids in our comprehension of language's consequences and implicit meanings above its literal meaning (Aronoff, 2020). Presupposition is a belief or assumption that is implicitly understood in a discourse, occasionally without being expressed directly. The selected text for the present study is UNICEF’s article entitled “Transforming lives with flexible funding.” The article was published in (20, June, 2024). It is about the effects of Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) on UNICEF’s ability to global humanitarian crises, with a special emphasis on addressing the demands of children and families impacted by natural disasters, displacement, and violence. The purpose of the research is to investigate the above mentioned UNICEF’s article “Transforming lives with flexible funding” using presuppositions to show the urgency of the problem, its complexity and displacement, and to emphasize UNICEF’s role in assisting those impacted.
2. Theoretical Background
2.1 Presupposition
Presupposition theory is one of the most important areas of linguistics and philosophy that seeks the assumptions or beliefs that are used in communication. Presupposition theory has some key tents which are Presupposition Triggers, Projection, Cancellation, Common Ground, Context Sensitivity, Presupposition Accommodation, Definiteness and Existential Presuppositions and Focus and Stress (Macagno, 2019). Projection means that presuppositions may be survive in encapsulated contexts. If an assumption is made in a sentence, it usually remains valid when that sentence is part of a larger structure (Romoli, 2017). As the author mentioned that Cancellation in presuppositions are often strong, but they can sometimes be negated or denied, especially with specific contexts or linguistic devices (Abrusán, 2016). Moreover, in pragmatics, presupposition triggers are important for analyzing how context and shared knowledge the communication structure, directing listeners in interpretation of inferred meanings supervising conversational dynamics. By studying these triggers, they give understanding into the complexities of language use and the fundamental assumptions that inform interactions (Cooper, 2018). Presuppositions are based on shared knowledge between the speaker and the listener. Effective communication often depends on a mutual understanding of these assumptions which is called Common Ground (Romoli, 2017). Additionally, Context Sensitivity means that the truth of an assumption may depend greatly on the context in which it is spoken. What is presupposition in one situation may not be true in another (Macagno, 2019). Accommodating presuppositions means that listeners can adjust their faiths to accommodate presuppositions, allowing communication to continue even if the presupposition is not actually part of the common denominator (Romoli, 2017). In addition to Definiteness and Existential Presuppositions refers to precise grammatical structures, such as definite noun phrases, often carry ontological presuppositions, which imply the presence of a referent (Abrusán, 2016). Finally, Focus and Stress is that placing emphasis or stress in a sentence can change what is assumed and what is asserted, affecting the interpretation of the statement (Abrusán, 2016). Throughout the tents of Presuppositions theory, it can be enrich comprehension of delicate communication and the tacit meanings behind spoken or written language.
Presupposition is a powerful tool for manipulation in live conversations through the conversation between the speaker and the listener. The listener can understand the conversation through the playful words that the speaker repeats. An example of verbal manipulation is, “Have you stopped eating fast food?” This question makes it clear to the listener that this person used to eat fast food. By concentrating the listener’s reaction on the suggested foundation, this approach manipulates the conversations. Moreover, a presupposition is a concept that explains some kind of meaning that is related to the literal meaning of an expression but is not exactly what the expression says. So there seems to be some connection between implied meaning and presupposition such as "Jane finally managed to fix the car," The term "finally managed" assumes that there had been unsuccessful attempts to fix the vehicle in the past. Although not said directly, this suggests a history of hardship or trouble with the automobile issue. The use of "finally" distorts the listener's perception of the circumstance by implying relief or a sense of accomplishment. It might seem that some aspects of implied meaning can be explained by the concept of presupposition. These examples are devised by the researcher.
2.2 Types of presupposition triggers
The presupposition trigger is a linguistic building or lexical piece that has existence to be responsible for presupposition in a given content in consequence of a trigger to it. Therefore, a presupposition trigger is an item or building that can show presupposition essence in an utterance or sentence. The examples of presupposition triggers are definite descriptions, factive verbs, change-of-state verbs, causal clauses, conditional statements, lexical presupposition and question (Miran, 2022). Miran explores the types of presupposition triggers as follows:
· “Definite Description” uses definite articles to refer to distinct entities, hunting its existence. For example “The president is giving a speech,” the presupposition here shows there is a specific president, the use of “the president” means that both of the speaker and the audience recognize which president is referred to.
· “Factive Verbs” refers to the information in their accompaniment clause. For example, “she realized that she was late,” the presupposition is that she was actually late, this means that the verb “realized” carries the presumption that the event of being late has already happened.
· “Change-of-State Verbs” allude to a transition from one state to another, conjecturing the existence of the former state, such as “She stopped smoking,” the presupposition here means that she used to be smoke, this shows that the verb “stopped” means that there was a latest condition of smoking that has now changed.
· “Causal Clauses” means a reason and assumes the truth of the cause. For example, “Because he was tired, he did not go to the school,” the presupposition here referred to “he was tired,” this shows that the clause relationship presupposes that the state of being tired is right and is the reason for his action.
· “Conditional Statement” expresses a situation and assumes the potential of the condition being true. For example, “If it rains, the picnic will be canceled,” the presupposition alludes to possible for it to rain. The meaning of the conditional statement presupposes that rain is a potential occurrence.
· “Lexical Presupposition” carries presupposition meanings based on the use of the conversations. For example, “He managed to finish the assignment,” the presupposition here means that he had some difficulty finishing the assignment. The word “managed” means that there were problems completing the assignment.
· “Interrogative Questions” It has been noted that questions tend to presuppose their affirmative equivalents and introduce additional assumptions through their question forms. These triggers help transmit the implicit meanings and assumptions that form of communication by suggestive what speakers expect listeners to know or accept as true. These examples are devised by the researcher.
3. Review of Literature
Presuppositions are critical in communication as they form the context of conversations, permitting speakers and listeners to pilot shared knowledge and presumptions that improve understanding and accelerate meaningful interactions. Heeding the previous studies conducted on presuppositions, Fabian, Said, and Jasim make a study about presupposition and their methodology and findings in “Oppenheimer” movie and in Hart and Kaufman’s Play “You Can’t Take It with You”. Fabian (2024) detected the presupposition triggers in the biographical film entitled “Oppenheimer” written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and directed by Christopher Nolan published in 2023. The study seeks to understand pragmatic theories and analytical tools to disentangle the implied layers braided throughout the film’s narrative to reflect on getting a clearer picture of the father of the atomic bomb and understand the psychology of the man himself. The methodology of this study includes a careful analysis of the linguistic and contextual components found in the dialogue and narrative structure of the film. Furthermore, by providing a broader viewpoint on how language is employed to transmit meaning beyond explicit declarations, the research advances our knowledge of presupposition analysis in cinematic discourse (Fabian, 2024). The findings of the study revealed that the analysis displayed a throng of presuppositions throughout the Oppenheimer movie, gauging linguistic and visual elements. There were classified into varied types, including existential presuppositions, presupposition triggers, and those associated to historical context, character relationships, and plot development (Fabian, 2024). Accordingly, the aim of the present study is to investigate the presupposition triggers in the text entitled “The Presupposition Analysis in Oppenheimer Movie.” to examine another genre that was not sufficiently examined before.
4. Methodology
4.1 Selected Data
The selected data of the current study is a UNICEF’s article titled “Transforming lives with flexible funding” published on 20 June 2024. The text contains approximately 1,117 words authored by humanitarian affairs officials in some countries. The article emphasizes the impact of Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) on varied crises impressive children and families in distinctive countries. The article aims at highlighting the roles of flexible subsidy in humanitarian responses, display special examples of how such funding has positively affected children and families, and proponent for continued support for UNICEF’s enterprise. The article is retrieved from: https://www.unicef.org/stories/transforming-lives-flexible-funding
Scope of Analysis
The entire article was chosen to clarify humanitarian crises, financing and the effect on people at risk in some countries and all topics are interrelated and cannot be separated and it applying the presupposition on the overall text which is going to provide variable information about the meanings inside these text.
4.2 Tools
Presupposition analysis can reveal main ideas discussed in the article which focus on the humanitarian crisis by exposing the deeper narratives and presuppositions that influence the understanding of these crises in addition to actual facts. This method aids in clarifying the intricate nature and urgency of the circumstances that impacted populations’ experience.
4.3 Analysis Procedures Below is the color code scheme use in the analysis: Yellow: Existential Phrases. Green: Factive Verbs. Red: Phasal Verbs. Pink: Expressions of Temporal Relations. Gray: Comparative Structures.
5. Data Analysis
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Extract from the text |
Trigger (A presupposition trigger is a construction or item that signals the existence of a presupposition in an utterance). |
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· “From violence in Haiti,..” · “to massive flooding in Nigeria,..” · “to displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo....” · “ Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) allows UNICEF to decide when and where it’s best to allocate funding.” · “ The eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue to grapple with insecurity stemming from armed conflicts,…" · “Grant Leaity, UNICEF Representative, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” · " Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.” · “ GHTF has been pivotal in allowing UNICEF to strategically preposition critical supplies such as hygiene kits,…”
· “This was critical with the early onset of flash rains and floods this year as well as the cholera outbreak.” · “ Jinan Ramadan, Emergency Specialist, UNICEF Yemen.” · “the conflict in Myanmar is rapidly escalating.” · “In the face of the deteriorating situation, GHTF is providing a critical lifeline, especially for children, who are bearing the heaviest burden of surging displacement and massive…” · “ GHTF is crucial because it allows UNICEF to prioritize assistance for the most affected and vulnerable children and families in this complex and dynamic emergency context.” · “ GHTF enables UNICEF to promptly mobilize lifesaving assistance, implement preparedness and risk prevention measures, and provide capacity building for frontline partners.” · “ Faika Farzana, Emergency Manager, UNICEF Myanmar” · “Children and families in Haiti are enduring relentless waves of brutal violence perpetrated by armed groups.” · “ Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti” · " Christina Valderrama Maya-Alfirev, Emergency Manager.” · “In 2023, more than 100,000 refugees and migrants officially transited through Serbia,…” · “Many of the children and their families entering Serbia are physically exhausted, , have had extremely stressful and risky journeys,…”
· GHTF has allowed UNICEF to work with partners, including the Government of Serbia, to support unaccompanied and separated children, who are at increased risk of violence and sexual exploitation.” · Milena Timotijevic, Emergency Officer, UNICEF Serbia. · “Millions of children and their families across Latin America and the Caribbean have left their schools, homes, and communities as they flee violence, poverty, the collapse of essential services, xenophobia, and the consequences of climate change.” · “In Nicaragua, GHTF has contributed to to strengthening of national capacity in protecting children and adolescents, including supporting psychosocial services and awareness raising activities in border municipalities around the risks of irregular migration.” · “ Vanessa Pichardo, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Nicaragua.” |
Existential Phrases 25 |
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· “Flexible funds allow us to proactively prepare and preposition essential supplies, ensuring timely delivery of life-saving assistance.” |
Factive Verbs 1 |
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· “Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world .” · “An unprecedented more than 3 million people are now internally displaced, as ongoing clashes and attacks marked by the widespread use of airstrikes, landmines, and other deadly weapons continue to threaten and disrupt the lives of families.” · Refugees and migrants continue to take dangerous routes to Europe as they flee conflict, persecution, and poverty.” |
Phasal Verbs 4 |
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· “Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) allows UNICEF to decide when and where it’s best to allocate funding.” · “This flexibility is critical during responses to sudden-onset emergencies, when children’s lives are in immediate danger, and also for protracted emergencies where needs are chronic yet urgent, but when the world’s focus may be elsewhere. ” · " Meanwhile, instability resulting from the unrest has led to widespread displacement and has severely restricted access to essential services." · “Flexible funding has enabled UNICEF to respond swiftly to emergencies in different provinces by allowing us to allocate funds when and where they are they are most needed and to tailor support to the unique needs of communities affected by crises.” |
Expressions of Temporal Relations
6 |
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· After more than nine years of conflict, Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. · “GHTF is crucial because it allows UNICEF to prioritize assistance for the most affected and vulnerable children and families in this complex and dynamic emergency context. “Children who are scared to go to school are at greater risk of social exclusion, being recruited by armed groups, and gender-based violence, particularly sexual and physical abuse.” · “identifying the most cases of the most vulnerable children and women who have survived violence and exploitation, and connecting them with specialized care and psychosocial support.” |
Comparative Structures 5 |
6. Results and Findings (Discussion)
In light of the above analysis of UNICEF’s article on the global humanitarian crises, it is evident that it employs presupposition as an effective linguistic tool to focus on the effects of global humanitarian crises in some countries with achieving the demands of children and families impacted by natural disasters, displacement, and violence. To attain this goal, UNICEF relies on existential phrases; which are appeared 61%, to focus on the entities that provide for affected populations and emphasis on urgency of solving the humanitarian crisis such as “ Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) allows UNICEF to decide when and where it’s best to allocate funding.”, “ GHTF has been pivotal in allowing UNICEF to strategically preposition critical supplies such as hygiene kits,…”, “ GHTF is crucial because it allows UNICEF to prioritize assistance for the most affected and vulnerable children and families in this complex and dynamic emergency context.”, and “ GHTF enables UNICEF to promptly mobilize lifesaving assistance, implement preparedness and risk prevention measures, and provide capacity building for frontline partners.” This shows that UNICEF’s article use existential phrases that relate to organization of (GHTF) and (UNICEF) predominantly to focus on the main role of humanitarian crisis to show and solve it. Moreover, UNICEF’s article mentions names of people specializing in humanitarian problems such as “ Jinan Ramadan, Emergency Specialist, UNICEF Yemen.”, “ Faika Farzana, Emergency Manager, UNICEF Myanmar”, " Christina Valderrama Maya-Alfirev, Emergency Manager.”, and “ Vanessa Pichardo, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Nicaragua.” This shows that the article is descriptive and mentioning people helps to clarify the humanitarian crises and making the issues more real and give the readers sense of empathy. Thus, the name of responsible people for the issues of humanitarian crises that uses in the text reflects the importance of individuals in solving these issues and raises the awareness and engagement. Furthermore, UNICEF used an existential phrases in describing some countries that suffering from humanitarian crises such as “From violence in Haiti,..”, “to massive flooding in Nigeria,..”, “to displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo....”, " Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.”, “the conflict in Myanmar is rapidly escalating.”, and “In 2023, more than 100,000 refugees and migrants officially transited through Serbia,…” This indicates that UNICEF’s article uses Haiti, Nigeria, Congo, Yemen, Myanmar and Serbian countries to increased awareness of the humanitarian issues facing these countries, such as poverty, conflict, and displacement.
The second dominant presupposition triggers are expressions of temporal relations, where each appeared 15% from the total sum of the presuppositions triggers. By employing the expressions of temporal relations, UNICEF assumes the existence of entities to focus on the importance of flexible funding and rapid response in emergencies such as “Global Humanitarian Thematic Funding (GHTF) allows UNICEF to decide when and where it’s best to allocate funding.”, “This flexibility is critical during responses to sudden-onset emergencies, when children’s lives are in immediate danger, and also for protracted emergencies where needs are chronic yet urgent, but when the world’s focus may be elsewhere. ”, " Meanwhile, instability resulting from the unrest has led to widespread displacement and has severely restricted access to essential services." And “Flexible funding has enabled UNICEF to respond swiftly to emergencies in different provinces by allowing us to allocate funds when and where they are they are most needed and to tailor support to the unique needs of communities affected by crises.” This shows that UNICEF keens on the link between chronic crises and immediate response, clarifies the importance of UNICEF intervention at critical times and also refers to developing the ability to adapt to changing needs.
The third dominant presupposition triggers are comparative structure, where each appeared 12% from the total sum of the presuppositions triggers. By using comparative structures, UNICEF assumes that there are entities to concentrate on grasping the complexity of Yemen’s humanitarian emergency and the significance of specific aid such as “After more than nine years of conflict, Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.”, “GHTF is crucial because it allows UNICEF to prioritize assistance for the most affected and vulnerable children and families in this complex and dynamic emergency context.”, “Children who are scared to go to school are at greater risk of social exclusion, being recruited by armed groups, and gender-based violence, particularly sexual and physical abuse.” and “identifying the most cases of the most vulnerable children and women who have survived violence and exploitation, and connecting them with specialized care and psychosocial support.” This indicates that UNICEF prioritizes employing comparative structures to highlight the length of the conflict in Yemen, while also characterizing Yemen as one of the biggest humanitarian emergencies globally. Furthermore, “the most affected and vulnerable children and families in this complex and dynamic emergency context” refers to the impacted and at-risk children and families in Yemen. The aim is to express the seriousness and duration of the crisis and to emphasize the extent and scale of the situation.
The last two major categories of presupposition triggers consist of phasal verbs, and factive verbs which phasal verbs accounted for 10% and factive verbs accounted for 2% of the overall total of presupposition triggers. Firstly, by using phasal verbs, UNICEF supposes that there are entities to highlight the ongoing and severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen, stress the continuous conflicts and assaults impacting families’ lives, and express tat refugees and migrants will keep leaving their homes in pursuit of safety and security such as “Yemen remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.”, “An unprecedented more than 3 million people are now internally displaced, as ongoing clashes and attacks marked by the widespread use of airstrikes, landmines, and other deadly weapons continue to threaten and disrupt the lives of families.” ,and “Refugees and migrants continue to take dangerous routes to Europe as they flee conflict, persecution, and poverty.” This shows that these expressions are employed to instill a feeling of urgency and significance, highlighting the necessity for action to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and assist those impacted. Moreover, by utilizing factive verbs, UNICEF suggests that there are entities emphasizing the significance and advantages of maintaining flexible funds in humanitarian initiatives such as “Flexible funds allow us to proactively prepare and preposition essential supplies, ensuring timely delivery of life-saving assistance.” The statement highlights the importance of possessing flexible financial resources to enable efficient and swift humanitarian response initiatives.
Figure 6.1 below shows the dominance of presupposition Triggers in a percentage of 100% Conclusion:
In conclusion, the examination of the UNICEF’s article on global humanitarian crises reveals how the organization purposively use linguistic devices, especially presupposition triggers such as existential phrases, expressions of temporal relations, comparative structures, phasal verbs and factive verbs, to highlight the gravity and contiguity of the circumstances that children and families affected by disaster, displacement, and violence undergo. The frequent use of existential language emphasizes how persistent these crises are, and citing particular specialists gives the discussion legality and promotes a common understanding of the difficulties. Additionally, the incorporation of comparative structural and temporal representations highlights the urgency of these humanitarian concerns and their growing severity, especially in areas like Yemen. Through the appropriate use of these language techniques, UNICEF not only conveys the seriousness of the humanitarian crises but also reaffirms its critical role in assistance mobilization and population advocacy. All things considered, the results highlight how crucial language is in influencing how people view humanitarian concerns and motivating action to resolve them. Furthermore, in the UNICEF article, they focused more on the humanitarian problems faced by some countries such as Yemen, Haiti, Myanmar, Serbia, Congo, Latin America and the Caribbean and did not mention their solutions. In addition, phasal verbs in linguistics reflect the relationship between language, truth and knowledge, and provide important insights into how speakers convey and assume truth in their statements. In this article, their number was very small, about 2%. So, future researchers should look for another text that talks about the same problems but mentions their solutions or see another research that has a lot of phasal verbs to increase the truth and knowledge and convey it to the readers.
Appendix
References:
Abrusán, M. (2016). Presupposition cancellation: explaining the ‘soft–hard’trigger distinction. Natural Language Semantics, 24(2), 165-202.
Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (Eds.). (2020). The handbook of linguistics. John Wiley & Sons.
Cooper, D. E. (2018). Presupposition (Vol. 203). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Fabian, M. R., & Heryono, H. (2024). The Presupposition Analysis In “Oppenheimer” Movie: Pragmatic Study. Jurnalistrendi: Jurnal Linguistik, Sastra dan Pendidikan, 9(1), 123-132.
https://midad-aladab.org/index.php/midadaladab/article/view/817
Ichikawa, J. J. (2020). Presupposition and consent. Feminist Philosophy Quarterly, 6(4).
Macagno, F. (2019). Presupposition Triggers and Presumptive Interpretation. In: Capone, A., Carapezza, M., Lo Piparo, F. (eds) Further Advances in Pragmatics and Philosophy: Part 2 Theories and Applications. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 20. Springer, Cham.
Miran, L. D. (2022). The Realization of Presupposition Triggers in the Types of Presupposition in Articles by Non-Native English Writers. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, 29(10, 2), 64-95.
Romoli, J., & Sauerland, U. (2017). Presupposition and accommodation. In The Routledge handbook of pragmatics (pp. 257-276). Routledge.
ا.م نادية خيري محمد, & م.م زينب فائز. (n.d.). A linguistic study of presupposition in Hart and Kaufman’s play “You can’t take it with you”: A linguistic study of presupposition in Hart and Kaufman’s play “You can’t take it with you.” مداد الآداب.
Types of presuppositions in the highlighted part of the UNICEF'S article
Sales Existential Phrases Factive Verbs Phrasal Verbs Expressions of Temporal Relations Comparative Structures 25 1 4 6 57