Reflection: Presuppositions, fictional worlds and stage directions in plays

When we comprehend language we create a model of what it is about in our heads, and this model includes our beliefs about the world. More accurately, we should say worlds: not just the physical world in which we live, but fantasy worlds (e.g. the world of Harry Potter), wish worlds (e.g. the world in which I win the lottery), future worlds (e.g. the world in which I cope with being old). These are all possible worlds (Ryan 1991). Play stage directions, particularly at the beginning of plays, are usually dense with presuppositions, deployed to create fictional worlds. Consider an early stage direction from the script of Bernard Shaw’s play Candida (1898):

The existence of a chair for visitors is hardly common knowledge, but it is presupposed in the definite noun phrase the chair for visitors, and in the light of this trigger we fill in one element of this fictional world created within our model. One could make similar remarks for the other definite noun phrases, the table, the typewriter, the door, the window and so on. Note the proper nouns presupposing the existence of certain characters. We also have a number of change-of-state verbs. Replaced presupposes that something was there in the first place; steals ... away to presupposes that he was not there in the first place; takes down presupposes that they were not already taken down; and so on. Trying presupposes that he has not succeeded in getting the typewriter to work, but the WH-structure how the typewriter works presupposes that it does work. In the final sentence, the WH-structure at the beginning presupposes that she had begun the second line; the change-of-state verb begins presupposes that she had not started, whereas stops presupposes (by that point!) she had at least started.