Presupposition Suspension
Definition:
A presupposition suspension is the speaker's removal of a previously implied commitment to a presupposition without the denial of it.
Examples:
(English)
In the utterance John didn’t cheat again, if indeed he ever did, the if clause suspends the presupposition that John ever cheated.
See Also:
Source:
This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library. Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003.