Approaching vagueness download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. You have to differentiate between vagueness and ambiguity to bring greater clarity to your efforts. Tokens of ambiguous sentences cannot he construed until and unless disam biguated, tokens of vague sentences can be construed without being made precise. Vagueness is not synonymous with ambiguity, although terms can be both vague and ambiguous. Humans possess very powerful mechanisms for disambiguation.
I am going to argue that green is vague and ambiguous. Essentially all programs that the government is involved in rely on definitions that are vague. Provide definitions for two of the meanings of the words. Ambiguity and vagueness ambiguity a word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous when it has more than one meaning. Look up this entry topic at the internet philosophy ontology project inpho. Here are a few examples of vague definitions from the goldmine of pseudowisdom that is depak chopra.
The distinction between the four concepts is a significant matter, both theoretically and practically. Vagueness will then be contrasted with ambiguity and generality. Vagueness and ambiguity clearly a person with a person with a head like an egg is bald. Vagueness and ambiguity vagueness when a definition is vague it has no specific meaning for the intended audience. This is the sense in which vagueness is understood in the void for vagueness doctrine, according to which a statute is considered void if it is framed in terms so indeterminate that its meaning can only be guessed at. Vagueness, language, and ontology jesse prinz 1998 1 we all know that language is vague. Problematic vaguness and ambiguity flashcards quizlet. In a colloquial sense, both vagueness and ambiguity are employed generically to indicate indeterminacy. We introduce the distinction between ambiguity and vagueness. We further provide empirical evidence based on factorial vignette surveys to show how increases in vagueness will decrease users acceptance of privacy risk and thus decrease users willingness to share personal information. The concept of ambiguity is generally contrasted with vagueness. I argue that, despite long standing attempts to explain metaphor as a species of ambiguous language, all such attempts fail. Vagueness, which is my topic tonight, illustrates these remarks.
Interpreting vague and ambiguous referring expressions by. This week the legal theory lexicon entry focuses on ambiguity and vagueness two important concepts for the theory of interpretation. Fuzziness vagueness generality ambiguity sciencedirect. Critical thinking vagueness and ambiguity by ben matthews.
It might be supposed that blurry boundaries are, at bottom, an ontological. According to grice, obscurity and ambiguity should be avoided by the speaker. Syntactic ambiguity is the phenomenon in which the same sequence of words has two or meanings due to different phrase structure analysis. Ambiguity is when there is more than one clear meaning, and it is difficult to choose which meaning was intended. A vague statement lacks clear and specific meaning. Though seemingly synonymous in common usage, vagueness and ambiguity are entirely different but very important problems in critical thinking. Sep 10, 2018 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 nondistinguished subcases of a single, more general meaning vague. For assessing position along the ambiguityvagueness continuum. In addition, vagueness is a topic that touches many other questions in philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science, not to mention ordinary conversation. For reference tasks, the knowledge speaker and hearer can be expected to have minimally includes. Semantic ambiguity a single word can be taken to have more than one plausible meaning in a single context. Ambiguity, vagueness, and other forms of indeterminacy not only are essentials of many artistic uses of language. This makes the notion of a borderline case crucial in accounts of vagueness. An analytical framework for vagueness and ambiguity in.
In ambiguity, specific and distinct interpretations are permitted although some may not be immediately obvious, whereas with information that is vague, it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity. He considers vagueness as the language property of indeterminacy. How to differentiate between vagueness and ambiguity synonym. The term ambiguity is used to describe a word, a phrase or a sentence with a multiple meanings. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
I propose to prove that all language is vague, and that therefore my language is vague, but i do not wish this conclusion to be one that you could derive without the help. 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. Lakoff 1970 suggested a test to distinguish between vagueness and ambiguity. There is wide agreement that a term is vague to the extent that it has borderline cases. Introduction university of the saarland, germany at the beginning of naturallanguage semantics as a formal discipline, there was the insight that the notion of meaning and the notion of truth are narrowly related. Vagueness is one of the basic attributes of natural language.
You will no doubt think that, in the words of the poet. All of the alternative meanings are perfectly clear, but from the context we dont know which one we should use. In chapter 1, i introduced vagueness and ambiguity together, and so far i have not attempted to distinguish them. In this paper, i attempt to distinguish four linguistic concepts. Vague terms have imprecise applications in some cases while ambiguity involves a term having two or more meanings. He sees vague language as ambiguity and uncertainty of truth, as indeterminacy and imprecision cited in cutting, 2007. Although arguments for and against competing theories of vagueness often appeal to claims about the use of vague predicates by ordinary speakers, such claims are rarely tested. Exercise sheet ambiguity lexical resource semantics. Pdf ambiguity, polysemy, and vagueness david tuggy. The premise of this paper is that these interindividual differences in semantic categorization reflect both ambiguity and vagueness. Vagueness, ambiguity and clarity critical thinking crt205 in the first example the organization is not named, the type of van is not named, and the conflict going on is not named, to say the least, the entire section is very vague and does not refer or mention any one thing that is going on. It is often assumed that there are fixed boundaries.
I shall concentrate on an historical characterization of borderline cases that most commentators would accept. Various definitions of ambiguity are critically examined and contrasted with definitions of generality and indeterminacy, concepts with which ambiguity is sometimes confused. For illustration we take an example of his, in which it apparently proves difficult. Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis. For example, if we are unclear about the definition of the term child pornography, we may want to. We are notoriously unable to resolve the precise number grains required for a portion of sand to fall under the predicate heap.
Analytic political philosophy tries to make our political language more precise. From problem to opportunity an analytical framework for. He thinks that the study of vagueness in language is significant only when vagueness is analyzed. On the difference between ambiguity, vagueness, and indeterminacy conference paper pdf available may 2017 with 2,291 reads how we measure reads. A pragmatic study on the functions of vague language in. Vagueness, ambiguity, and the sound ofmeaning sylvain bromhcrger 5. He 2000 studies vague language from a pragmatic view. Although people often confuse vagueness and ambiguity, they are being vague when they do. Section 2 presents evidence that english is massively ambiguous1. First published in 1930, seven types of ambiguity has long been recognized as a landmark in the history of english literary criticism. Chapter 2 ambiguity and vagueness flashcards quizlet.
Once you begin writing papers or giving oral presentations on a regular basis, its almost inevitable that your teacher will return one with a note that says, this is vague or this is ambiguous. Click download or read online button to get approaching vagueness book now. Thus, the advantages of vagueness do not seem to apply to ambiguity, and we are back to the question. Ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation by ralf. And some legal texts are vaguethey use concepts that have indefinite application to particular cases. Vagueness, ambiguity, and underspecification manfred pinkal 1. The article first delimits vagueness and ambiguity and sets it into relation to related phenomena like the generality of legal expressions 1.
Four experimental studies on vagueness phil serchuk, ian hargreaves, and richard zach abstract. Fuzziness differs from generality, vagueness, and ambiguity in that it is not simply a result of a oneto. Vagueness, ambiguity, and underspecification semantic scholar. As nouns the difference between ambiguity and vagueness is that ambiguity is countable something liable to more than one interpretation, explanation or meaning, if that meaning etc cannot be determined from its context while vagueness is. On the difference between ambiguity, vagueness, and indeterminacy conference paper pdf available may 2017 with 2,447 reads how we measure reads. I said, seemed to be shifting the burden of communication from speaker to listener.
Individuals disagree which items should be considered category members. But in doing so it risks departing from our natural language and intuitions. According to deane 1988 these three phenomena form a gradient between total semantic identity vagueness and total semantic distinctness p. Some legal texts are ambiguousthey contain words or phrases that can have two or more distinct meanings. Vagueness has in its own right reaped the attention of an extensive literature. Pdf on the difference between ambiguity, vagueness, and.
Ambiguity, polysemy and vagueness are terms used in cognitive semantics referring to different instances of plurality of meaning. Interpreting vague and ambiguous referring expressions 3 referring expression and information from the context, whether situational i. Vagueness is the basis for more government growth and abuse than any other factor. The article first delimits vagueness and ambiguity and sets it into relation to re. Several tests are discussed from the perspectives of semantics, syntax and pragmatics. Vagueness, ambiguity, and all the rest1 an explication and an intuitive test peter bosch 0. For instance, a difference of opinion as to whether a man is truly bald is the result of ambiguity, not vagueness when one judge uses the number of hairs as a criterion and the other the distribution of hairs across the scalp.
Ambiguity arises when individuals employ different criteria to determine whether a word applies to an instance or not. We go on to identify several distinct types of ambiguity. I conclude that generality, vagueness, and fuzziness are underdetermined, and ambiguity is overdetermined. Elsevier journal of pragmatics 29 1998 31 fuzziness vagueness generality ambiguity qiao zhang asian studies, school of languages, university of otago, po box 56, dunedin, new zealand received march 996. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Ambiguity and vagueness in historical change research explorer. If a word is ambiguous, the speaker can resolve the ambiguity without departing from literal usage.
References ambiguity and vagueness are two varieties of interpretive uncertainty which are often discussed together, but are distinct both in their essential features and in their signi. Ambiguity and vagueness are two varieties of interpretive uncertainty. We argue that sometimes conceptual dispute in political philosophy can due to ambiguity. There is no doubt that vagueness and ambiguity are related phenomena. The test is contrasted with a test for vagueness first. Pdf ambiguity, polysemy, and vagueness researchgate. Ambiguity, generality, and indeterminacy university of chicago. See dietz and moruzzi 2010 for articles on the full range of vagueness related philosophical issues.
Section 1 clarifies what we mean by ambiguity, discussing the distinction between vagueness and ambiguity. There are two types of ambiguity syntactic and semantic ambiguities. Vagueness and ambiguity are key problems in theories of legal interpretation. What is the difference between ambiguity and vagueness. Ambiguity and vagueness also contrast with respect to the speakers discretion. A word or phrase is said to be ambiguous if it has at least two specific meanings that make sense in context. Introduction university of the saarland, germany at the beginning of naturallanguage semantics as a formal discipline, there was the. Metaphor and its ties to ambiguity and vagueness this paper examines the comparative usefulness of seeking to explain metaphor through the notions of ambiguity and vagueness. For assessing position along the ambiguity vagueness continuum. Vagueness definition of vagueness by the free dictionary.
Pdf vagueness and ambiguity in political terminology. The problem addressed is that of finding a sound characterization of ambiguity. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. An analytical framework for vagueness and ambiguity in international law. When asked to indicate which items from a set of candidates belong to a particular natural language category interindividual differences occur. Several tests are discussed from the perspectives of semantics, syntax and. Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted. The warning message we sent the russians was a calculated ambiguity that would be clearly understood. Ambiguity and vaguenessshort free download as powerpoint presentation. Poscher, ralf, ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation july 31, 2010.