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Sep 10, 2018 · In speech or writing, vagueness is the imprecise or unclear use of language. Contrast this term with clarity and specificity. As an adjective, the word becomes vague. Although vagueness often occurs unintentionally, it may also be employed as a deliberate rhetorical strategy to avoid dealing with an issue or responding directly to a question.
- Richard Nordquist
Vague and ambiguous words lead to the most common types of verbal disagreement. Vagueness refers to a lack of clarity in meaning. For example, Go down the road a ways and then turn right is vague because “a ways” does not precisely explain how far one should go down the road. Ambiguity is when there is more than one clear meaning, and it is ...
May 7, 2021 · In many situations, the vagueness of vague terms does not become a problem because there are no borderline cases and no risk of running into Sorites series. In other words, the vague terms are only potentially vague (there are possible borderline cases) but not actually vague (there is no borderline case in the given situation).
- David Lanius
- 2021
Jan 17, 1997 · The sorites paradox originated in an ancient puzzle that appears to be generated by vague terms, viz., terms with unclear (“blurred” or “fuzzy”) boundaries of application. ‘Bald’, ‘heap’, ‘tall’, ‘old’, and ‘blue’ are prime examples of vague terms: no clear line divides people who are bald from people who are not, or blue objects from green (hence not blue), or old ...
Sep 26, 2019 · First problem: the abstractness of vague terms. If vagueness is defined as something with abstractly conceivable borderline cases, then it seems that almost everything can be vague. All one has to do is to possess a fertile mind that, while manipulating a given factual reality, is able to create a borderline case for a term.
- Ana Escher
- anaescher@campus.ul.pt
- 2019
Feb 8, 1997 · Vagueness is standardly defined as the possession of borderline cases. For example, ‘tall’ is vague because a man who is 1.8 meters in height is neither clearly tall nor clearly non-tall. No amount of conceptual analysis or empirical investigation can settle whether a 1.8 meter man is tall.
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Feb 8, 1997 · If vague terms were literally indexical, the sorites monger would have a strong reply. If vague terms only resemble indexicals, then the contextualist needs to develop the analogy in a way that circumvents Stanley’s counsel to the sorites monger. The contextualist would also need to address a second technique for stabilizing the context. R. M.
