I have seen the word "prejacent" in many linguistics related papers. However, none of them explains what exactly a prejacent is. Could someone elaborate more on this?
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Too bad it only means previous or replaced. Pre+[ad]jacent and Post+[ad]jacent could have had useful meanings. – amI Apr 05 '18 at 22:00
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according to the merriam webster dictionary the prejacent is "an antecedent proposition in logic from which another is developed"
In a sentence with 'only', like "only roses are red" the prejacent is the proposition without 'only', namely "roses are red".
This use of preajacent is compatible with the general definition, in that the prejacent of only(P) is a proposition P from which another one is developed, namely only(P).
DaniPaniz
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I suspect that the meaning that Ailis Cournane suggests is the meaning that OP has met in linguistics papers. The logical sense would not be at all common, if it exists at all, in that literature. I think it entered linguistics terminology via Kai von Fintel and Irene Heim's Intensional Semantics notes, which have been circulating in PDF form for a couple of decades. The latest version can be found here:
https://github.com/fintelkai/fintel-heim-intensional-notes/blob/master/IntensionalSemantics.pdf
On page 5 of this version, we read the following:
A terminological note: we will call the sister of the intensional operator its PREJACENT, a useful term introduced by our medieval colleagues.
Note that strictly speaking we are not dealing with a proposition (i.e. a semantic object) but with a syntactic object, contrary to what Ailis Cournane says in her answer.
Lewis Theobald
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The proposition that a semantic operator combines with. Like "it's raining" in the sentence "It must be raining".
