Vagueness and Rationality in Language Use and Cognition

Vagueness and Rationality in Language Use and Cognition
Author: Richard Dietz
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2019-09-17
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3030159310

This volume presents new conceptual and experimental studies which investigate the connection between vagueness and rationality from various systematic directions, such as philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology, computing science, and economics. Vagueness in language use and cognition has traditionally been interpreted in epistemic or semantic terms. The standard view of vagueness specifically suggests that considerations of agency or rationality, broadly conceived, can be left out of the equation. Most recently, new literature on vagueness has been released which suggests that the standard view is inadequate and that considerations of rationality should factor into more comprehensive models of vagueness. The methodological approaches presented here are diverse, ranging from philosophical interpretations of rational credence for vagueness to adaptations of choice theory (dynamic choice theory, revealed preference models, social choice theory), probabilistic models of pragmatic reasoning (Bayesian pragmatics), evolutionary game theory, and conceptual space models of categorisation.

Unruly Words

Unruly Words
Author: Diana Raffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199915105

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.

Vague Language

Vague Language
Author: Joanna Channell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1994
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

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.

Vagueness and Language Use

Vagueness and Language Use
Author: P. Égré
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2011-04-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0230299318

This volume brings together twelve papers by linguists and philosophers contributing novel empirical and formal considerations to theorizing about vagueness. Three main issues are addressed: gradable expressions and comparison, the semantics of degree adverbs and intensifiers (such as 'clearly'), and ways of evading the sorites paradox.

Vagueness in Normative Texts

Vagueness in Normative Texts
Author: Vijay K. Bhatia
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2005
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9783039106530

Normative texts are meant to be highly impersonal and decontextualised, yet at the same time they also deal with a range of human behaviour that is difficult to predict, which means they have to have a very high degree of determinacy on the one hand, and all-inclusiveness on the other. This poses a dilemma for the writer and interpreter of normative texts. The author of such texts must be determinate and vague at the same time, depending upon to what extent he or she can predict every conceivable contingency that may arise in the application of what he or she writes. The papers in this volume discuss important legal and linguistic aspects relating to the use of vagueness in legal drafting and demonstrate why such aspects are critical to our understanding of the way normative texts function.

Not Exactly

Not Exactly
Author: Kees van Deemter
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2010-01-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199545901

Our lives are full of inexactitude. We say a person is tall or an action is just without the precision of measurement on a dial. In this engaging account, Kees van Deemter explores vagueness, cutting across areas such as language, mathematical logic, and computing. He considers why vagueness is inherent, and why it is important in how we function.

Vagueness and Thought

Vagueness and Thought
Author: Andrew Bacon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198712065

"Vagueness is the study of concepts that admit borderline cases. The epistemology of vagueness concerns attitudes we should have towards propositions we know to be borderline. On this basis Andrew Bacon develops a new theory of vagueness in which vagueness is fundamentally a property of propositions, explicated in terms of its role in thought."--

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
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2018-06-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1350029629

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.

Vagueness

Vagueness
Author: Timothy Williamson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2002-01-04
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134770189

If you keep removing single grains of sand from a heap, when is it no longer a heap? From discussions of the heap paradox in classical Greece, to modern formal approaches like fuzzy logic, Timothy Williamson traces the history of the problem of vagueness. He argues that standard logic and formal semantics apply even to vague languages and defends the controversial, realist view that vagueness is a form of ignorance - there really is a grain of sand whose removal turns a heap into a non-heap, but we can never know exactly which one it is.

Vagueness

Vagueness
Author: Kit Fine
Publisher: Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy
Total Pages: 121
Release: 2020
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0197514952

Vagueness is a subject of long-standing interest in the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and philosophical logic. Numerous accounts of vagueness have been proposed in the literature but there has been no general consensus on which, if any, should be be accepted. Kit Fine here presents a new theory of vagueness based on the radical hypothesis that vagueness is a "global" rather than a "local" phenomenon. In other words, according to Fine, the vagueness of an object or expression cannot properly be considered except in its relation to other objects or other expressions. He then applies the theory to a variety of topics in logic, metaphysics and epistemology, including the sorites paradox, the problem of personal identity, and the transparency of mental phenomenon. This is the inaugural volume in the Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy series, presenting lectures from the most important contemporary thinkers in the discipline.