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Dec 4, 2014 · Williamson argues that (under the hypothesis that vague terms have sharp boundaries) your knowledge of the boundaries of vague terms is similarly inexact. The thought is that vague terms are unstable: a small and imperceptible change in our use of the term “bald” would shift its boundary.
Abstract. According to the ancient sorites paradox, zero grains of sand is not enough to make a heap, and adding one single grain can never transform a non-heap into a heap, so there can be no heaps of sand! Similar reasoning applies to all vague terms. In view of this problem, some philosophers have suggested that we must modify classical ...
Jul 11, 2012 · In "Vagueness in Quantity: Two Case Studies from a Linguistic Perspective", Solt discusses the vague quantifiers many, few, much, and little, and contrasts most with more than half. These expressions have many of the features of typical vague predicates. Any account of vague predicates should be capable of extension to other vague terms.
- Vague Words and Phrases
- Vagueness Versus Specificity
- Varieties of Vagueness
- Vagueness in Oratory
- Vagueness in Survey Questions
- Ambiguity Versus Vagueness
- Vagueness in Sentences and Words
"Vaguenessarises from the use of terms that are inherently vague. The cabinet minister who says, My officials are monitoring this situation very closely, and I can promise that we shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the situation is resolved in a way that is fair to all the parties involved. should be challenged on grounds of vaguene...
"Vague or abstract words can create wrong or confusing meaningsin your receiver's mind. They state a general idea but leave the precise meaning to the receiver's interpretation...The following examples show vague or abstract words and ways to make them specific and precise: 1. many - 1,000 or500 to 1,000 2. early- 5 a.m. 3. hot- 100 degrees Fahrenh...
"One characteristic of vagueness...is that it is related to the degree of formality, or rather informality, of the situation; the less formal the situation the more vagueness there will be..."
"[T]he need in oratory of the specific example, either in place of or immediately following the general statement, cannot be too strongly urged. Generalizations alone have no persuasive value. And yet this truth is constantly overlooked by public speakers. How often do we hear the common criticism of the typically weak, impressionless address: 'Pla...
"Vague words are very common on surveys. A word is vague when it is not obvious to a respondent what referents (e.g., instances, cases, examples) fall under the umbrella of the word's intended meaning...For example, consider the question, 'How many members of your household work?' This question has several vague words, most of which would be missed...
"The difference between ambiguity and vagueness is a matter of whether two or more meanings associated with a given phonological form are distinct (ambiguous), or united as non-distinguished subcases of a single, more general meaning (vague). A standard example of ambiguity is bank 'financial institution' vs. bank 'land at river's edge,' where the ...
"The primary application of 'vague' is to sentences, not to words. But the vaguenessof a sentence does not imply that vagueness of every constituent word. One vague word is enough. It may be essentially doubtful whether this is a red shape because it is essentially doubtful whether this is red, although beyond doubt that it is a shape. The vaguenes...
May 7, 2021 · Because the world is fuzzy and we want to correctly and adequately represent the world, we should use vague language. (1) It is desirable to correctly and adequately represent the world. (2) The world is fuzzy. (3) Vagueness is an indispensable causal means to correctly and adequately represent a fuzzy world.
- David Lanius
- 2021
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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Jan 1, 2011 · Vagueness is a pervasive feature of natural language. Members of almost any lexical category can be vague. Prototypical vague expressions are adjectives like ‘tall’, ‘fast’, ‘red’, and ‘adolescent’. The Sorites Paradox is the hallmark of vagueness and formulated in terms of a noun, ‘heap’.
