HIDDEN MEANINGS AND SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES: PRESUPPOSITIONS

A presupposition is knowledge taken for granted in the listener which must not be used recklessly. Assuming that the receiver has certain knowledge that we take for granted may, in fact, be hazardous from a communication point of view.

Stepping into a pub in Ireland and ordering two beers by showing the bartender two fingers to compensate for our bad English means being rude.

We usually use presuppositions in our everyday talk, otherwise we’d be too long-winded. Everyone would order “a glass of orange” at the bar without feeling the need to tell the bartender that we’re referring to “a crystal glass full of orange”, knowing that he would never understand “a glass composed of orange”.

Presuppositions are useful when we need to send a series of interwoven messages to multiple receivers with different competences, but all potential targets of the same product, creating a micro-case of polysemantic relational communication (though in an extremely simplified form).

In 2003, Anne Leibovitz photographed Natalia Vodianova for Vogue US in a series based on the nineteenth-century novels. The presupposition? That everyone knows Alice in Wonderland.

Hermès in his advertisement assumes that everyone knows the story of Cinderella and his famous shoe.

The assumption of Nike is that everyone recognizes his famous brand.

This sportswear can only be appreciated by those who know Valentino Rossi.

Only a rock fan will recognize the yellow vest worn by rock star Freddie Mercury.

Only those familiar with Alice in Wonderland can fully appreciate the gist of this Furla bag, which draws its inspiration from the story.