Vague Language

Vague Language

Author: Joanna Channell

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1994

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13:

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This is a major descriptive study of linguistic vagueness. It argues that strategies for being vague constitute a key aspect of the communicative competence of the native speaker of English.


Unruly Words

Unruly Words

Author: Diana Raffman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-02

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0199915105

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In Unruly Words, Diana Raffman advances a new theory of vagueness which, unlike previous accounts, is genuinely semantic while preserving bivalence. According to this new approach, called the multiple range theory, vagueness consists essentially in a term's being applicable in multiple arbitrarily different, but equally competent, ways, even when contextual factors are fixed.


Communicating through Vague Language

Communicating through Vague Language

Author: Peyman G.P. Sabet

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-29

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1137486384

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This book is a comparative study of vague language based on naturally occurring data of L1 and L2 speakers in academic settings. It explores how L2 learners have diverse and culturally specific needs for vague language compared with L1s, and are generally vaguer.


Vague Language Explored

Vague Language Explored

Author: J. Cutting

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2007-01-30

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 0230627420

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Vague language ('bags of time', 'doing stuff', 'and all that') is an aspect of communicative competence of considerable social importance. This book examines its function. It spans genre analysis, critical discourse analysis, psycholinguistics and cross-cultural sociolinguistics, and suggests applications in TEFL and directions for future research.


Vague Language, Elasticity Theory and the Use of ‘Some’

Vague Language, Elasticity Theory and the Use of ‘Some’

Author: Grace Qiao Zhang

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-06-28

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1350029602

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In Vague Language, Elasticity Theory and the Use of 'Some', Nguyet Nhu Le and Grace Qiao Zhang present the first comprehensive study of the word 'some', focusing on its elasticity. In particular, they consider how 'some' is both a quantifier and a qualifier, has positive or negative meanings, and has local and global interpretations. They show that the word is used across a meaning continuum and can be used to convey a range of states, including approximation, uncertainty, politeness, and evasion. Finally, they demonstrate that the functions of 'some' are also multi-directional and non-categorical, consisting of four major functions (right amount of information, mitigation, withholding information, and discourse management). Based on naturally-occurring classroom data of L1 (American English) and L2 (Chinese- and Vietnamese-speaking learners of English) speakers, Vague Language shows that L2 speakers used 'some' more than L1 speakers and explores the significance of this, particularly taking account of speakers' language ability and cultural backgrounds. While this book focuses on the single word 'some', the authors' discussion has important implications for language studies more generally, as they call for a rethinking of our approaches to language study and more attention to its elasticity.


Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language

Author: George Orwell

Publisher: Renard Press Ltd

Published: 2021-01-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1913724271

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George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times


Vagueness

Vagueness

Author: Kit Fine

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 0197514952

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"The book is about the problem of vagueness. It begins by discussing some of the existing views on vagueness and then explains why they have not been thought to be satisfactory. It then outlines a new account of vagueness, based upon the general idea that vagueness is a global rather than a local phenomenon.. In other words, the vagueness of an expression or object is not an intrinsic feature of the object or an expression but a matter of how it relates to other objects and expression. The development of this idea leads to a new semantics and logic for vagueness. The semantics and logic are then applied to a number of issues, including the sorites paradox, the transparency of mental states, and personal identity. It is shown that the view allows one to hew to a much more intuitive position on these various issues"--


Vagueness in Psychiatry

Vagueness in Psychiatry

Author: Geert Keil

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0198722370

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Blurred boundaries between the normal and the pathological are a recurrent theme in almost every publication concerned with the classification of mental disorders. Yet, systematic approaches that take into account discussions about vagueness are rare. This volume is the first in the psychiatry/philosophy literature to tackle this problem.


AP English Language & Composition 2017-2018

AP English Language & Composition 2017-2018

Author: Denise Pivarnik-Nova

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-02-07

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1506224660

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Provides a comprehensive review of exam topics, from key terminology to essay writing, and includes test-taking strategies and full-length practice tests.


Vagueness as Arbitrariness

Vagueness as Arbitrariness

Author: Sagid Salles

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-03-12

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 3030667812

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This book proposes a new solution to the problem of vagueness. There are several different ways of addressing this problem and no clear agreement on which one is correct. The author proposes that it should be understood as the problem of explaining vague predicates in a way that systematizes six intuitions about the phenomenon and satisfies three criteria of adequacy for an ideal theory of vagueness. The third criterion, which is called the “criterion of precisification”, is the most controversial one. It is based on the intuition that a predicate is vague only if it is imprecise. The author considers some different definitions of linguistic imprecision, proposing that a predicate is imprecise if and only if there is no sharp boundary between objects to which its application yields some particular truth-value and objects to which its application does not yield that truth-value. The volume critically reviews the current theories of vagueness and proposes a new one, the Theory of Vagueness as Arbitrariness, which defines a vague predicate as an arbitrary predicate that must be precisified in order to contribute to a sentence that has truth-conditions. The main advantages of this theory over the current alternatives are that it satisfies all three criteria and systematizes the relevant intuitions.