Presupposition and narrative worlds: accessing readers' background knowledge

Joseph Arko

This paper gives an account of my research design and methods of data collection. My study of Presupposition is predicated on the assumption that discourse contains a deposit of meaning which compels certain perspectives in interpretation. Language functions to partition readers/hearers into epistemic communities some of whom are within the group with others outside it. My research is attempting a cross cultural study between students from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Ghana. I have been running reading experiments in Ghana and Edinburgh collecting concurrent protocols from participants and holding retrospective interviews. I hope the data from these sessions will be useful in giving an account of how readers? cultural backgrounds influence their comprehension of narrative texts.