Vagueness is a consequence of using language, which is a discrete code. Perhaps, then, the role of ambiguity is to recycle the short words, so that long words would only be used infrequently. Vagueness, language, and ontology jesse prinz 1998 1 we all know that language is vague. Robert batey, vagueness and the construction of criminal. Taxonomy of vague and ambiguous terms vagueness and ambiguity arise when a statement is incomplete and missing relevant information, or when a word or phrase has more than one possible interpretation and the reader is uncertain about which interpretation the author intended. Ambiguity, vagueness, and other forms of indeterminacy not only are essentials of many artistic uses of language. It is surprising, therefore, to come upon two passages in one of his best early stories, soldiers home, that seem in their apparent vagueness and ambiguity to defy these welldeserved accolades. Interpreting vague and ambiguous referring expressions 3 referring expression and information from the context, whether situational i.
The distinction between the four concepts is a significant matter, both. For instance, he can declare that he meant child to express the concept of an immature offspring. Introduction one of the basic properties of animals is communication. Abstract ambiguity arises in requirements when a statement is unintentionally or otherwise incomplete, missing information, or when a word or phrase has more than one possible meaning. Introduction ambiguity is a notion important, not only to linguists, but also to philosophers. Ambiguity should certainly be distinguished from vagueness, and ambiguity should continue to have a separate page. 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. Although people often confuse vagueness and ambiguity, they are being vague when they do. An important implication of this is that for meaning investigations, an integral approach combining semantics, pragmatics, and psycholinguistics.
If you apply the embodied meaning understanding of the meaning of language, there can never be any precise equivalence between the meaning of a word, sentence or other symbol for. Vagueness is introduced into an argument by vague terms, or more precisely, vague concepts. Yet, in spite of its importance, it has yet to receive. February 2, 2014 critical thinking ambiguity, vagueness robert m ellis arguments are, of course, made out of language, and language is always ambiguous to some extent. First, the nature of vagueness is discussed, and contrasted with notions such as ambiguity and context. Fuzziness vagueness generality ambiguity sciencedirect. Problematic vaguness and ambiguity flashcards quizlet. For webbased and mobile information systems, ambiguity, and vagueness in particular, undermines the ability of organizations to align. In chapter 1, i introduced vagueness and ambiguity together, and so far i have not attempted to distinguish them.
Indeed, a part of the rationale for learning how to disambiguate is to ensure that you no longer confuse ambiguity with vagueness. On one interpretation, flying is a verb and planes is interpreted as its object. Exercise sheet ambiguity lexical resource semantics. A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Pdf ambiguity, polysemy, and vagueness david tuggy. Ambiguity arises when individuals employ different criteria to determine whether a word applies to an instance or not. Ambiguity and vagueness in legal interpretation by ralf. Interpreting vague and ambiguous referring expressions by. The test is contrasted with a test for vagueness first proposed by peirce and a test for generality propounded by margalit. An important implication of this is that for meaning investigations, an integral approach combining semantics, pragmatics, and psycholinguistics would be more. Section 1 clarifies what we mean by ambiguity, discussing the distinction between vagueness and ambiguity. They have striven to reduce mind to matter, or to reabsorb matter into mind, or to merge them within a single substance. A standard example of ambiguity is bank financial institution vs. Pdf on may 14, 2017, georg friedrich and others published on the difference.
Ambiguity and vagueness are two varieties of interpretive uncertainty which are. Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted. 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. Referring expressions with vague and ambiguous modifiers, such as a. Although the paper is titled ambiguity in chinese and analyzes numerous chinese examples, it actually provides a framework for viewing ambiguity in general, as opposed to two related linguistic phenomena, i. Semantic vagueness and lexical polyvalence wiley online library. 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. Vagueness, ambiguity, and all the rest1 an explication and an intuitive test peter bosch 0. Vagueness and ambiguity in hemingways soldiers home.
Ambiguity is a very complex problem, and one of the suggestions how to solve the problem is either to use the method of immediate constituents analysis or apply transformational generative approach to language analyses. A vague statement lacks clear and specific meaning. Vagueness and language use edited by paul egre, nathan klinedinst. Normally, it is taken as a device that buys a temporary agreement at the price of a later verbal and interpretive. The article first delimits vagueness and ambiguity and sets it into relation to related phenomena like the generality of legal expressions 1. 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. Pdf on the difference between ambiguity, vagueness, and. Ambiguity is when there is more than one clear meaning, and. Human beings, being intelligent social animals, communication through language is their species specific property. A word, phrase or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. We are notoriously unable to resolve the precise number grains required for a portion of sand to fall under the predicate heap. We go on to identify several distinct types of ambiguity.
In a colloquial sense, both vagueness and ambiguity are employed generically to indicate indeterminacy. Ambiguity and vagueness also contrast with respect to the speakers discretion. Nor is unintended ambiguity the kind resulting from two differing meanings of a phrase, not from multiple interpretations of its thematic import. The book puts controversies in legal theory in a new light, using arguments in the philosophy of language to offer an explanation of the unclarities that arise in borderline cases for the application of vague. Vagueness and ambiguity clearly a person with a person with a head like an egg is bald. 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. Provide definitions for two of the meanings of the words. For example, chomskys classic example 5 involves a subject object ambiguity analogous to 4, as well as syncretism of the ing suffix, resulting in syntactic ambiguity regarding the grammatical category of flying. Vagueness and ambiguity vagueness when a definition is vague it has no specific meaning for the intended audience. Vagueness, ambiguity, and the sound ofmeaning sylvain bromhcrger 5. Diplomatic ambiguity is one of the most interesting kinds of languageuse in politics in general, and in diplomacy in particular. Ambiguity it is usually thought that we can easily distinguish between ambiguity and vagueness, and that only the latter is philosophically interesting.
Section 2 presents evidence that english is massively ambiguous1. Vagueness in a cognitive occurrence is a characteristic of its relation to that which is known, not a characteristic of the occurrence in itself. Here are a few examples of vague definitions from the goldmine of pseudowisdom that is depak chopra. Ambiguity can have both lexical and structural basis, as it is represented in a sentence like i left her behind for you. Vagueness, ambiguity, and underspecification manfred pinkal 1. 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 and ambiguity are key problems in theories of legal interpretation. What is the difference between ambiguity and vagueness.
In this paper, i attempt to distinguish four linguistic concepts. Ambiguity can be structural ambiguity, that is, pertain to syntactic or mor phological structure, and thus a product of linearizution. The ethics of ambiguity irish secure internet services. Those who have accepted the dualism have established a hierarchy between body and. This book responds to the challenges that those indeterminacies pose to a theory of law and adjudication. If a word is ambiguous, the speaker can resolve the ambiguity without departing from literal usage. Nevertheless, this ambiguity analysis presently still seems. Ambiguity and vagueness ambiguity a word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous when it has more than one meaning. Words, phrases or sentences are ambiguous if they express more than one meaning. I shall, therefore, though regretfully, address you in english, and whatever vagueness is to be found in my words must be attributed to our ancestors for not having been predominantly interested in logic.
For example, if we are unclear about the definition of the term child pornography, we may want to. Whether the word imprecision encompasses just vagueness, or both vagueness and ambiguity, is a debatable and not particularly interesting question. Tokens of ambiguous sentences cannot he construed until and unless disam biguated, tokens of vague sentences can be construed without being made precise. This chapter provides a biased overview of analyses of vagueness within linguistics. What matters is there are two distinct phenomena, vagueness and ambiguity. 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. Although people are sometimes said to be ambiguous in how they use language, ambiguity is, strictly speaking, a property of linguistic expressions. It might be supposed that blurry boundaries are, at bottom, an ontological. There is no doubt that vagueness and ambiguity are related phenomena. It is well known that short words tend to be more ambiguous than long words.
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