On the optimality of vagueness: "around", "between" and the Gricean maxims.
Why is ordinary language vague? We argue that in contexts in which a cooperative speaker is not perfectly informed about the world, the use of vague expressions can offer an optimal tradeoff between truthfulness (Gricean Quality) and informativeness (Gricean Quantity). Focusing on expressions of app...
| Publicado en: | Linguistics & Philosophy Vol. 46; no. 5; pp. 1075 - 1131 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Oct2023
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=170407410&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 170407410 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01650157 OJI jtl: Linguistics & Philosophy issn: 01650157 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2023 vid: 46 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 170407410 10.1007/s10988-022-09379-6 ppf: 1075 ppct: 56 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.4MB tig: atl: On the optimality of vagueness: "around", "between" and the Gricean maxims. aug: au: Égré, Paul Spector, Benjamin Mortier, Adèle Verheyen, Steven affil: Institut Jean-Nicod (CNRS, ENS-PSL University, EHESS), Department of Philosophy and Department of Cognitive Studies, ENS, 29, rue d'Ulm, 75005, Paris, France Institut Jean-Nicod (CNRS, ENS-PSL University, EHESS), Department of Cognitive Studies, ENS, 29, rue d'Ulm, 75005, Paris, France MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 32-D808, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA Erasmus University Rotterdam, Department of Psychology, Education and Child Studies / Brain and Cognition, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Burg. Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam, The Netherlands su: Vagueness (Philosophy) Approximation error Semantics Ambiguity Philosophers sug: subj: Vagueness (Philosophy) Approximation error Semantics Ambiguity Philosophers keyword: Approximation Lexical uncertainty Probabilistic semantics Vagueness ab: Why is ordinary language vague? We argue that in contexts in which a cooperative speaker is not perfectly informed about the world, the use of vague expressions can offer an optimal tradeoff between truthfulness (Gricean Quality) and informativeness (Gricean Quantity). Focusing on expressions of approximation such as "around", which are semantically vague, we show that they allow the speaker to convey indirect probabilistic information, in a way that can give the listener a more accurate representation of the information available to the speaker than any more precise expression would (intervals of the form "between"). That is, vague sentences can be more informative than their precise counterparts. We give a probabilistic treatment of the interpretation of "around", and offer a model for the interpretation and use of "around"-statements within the Rational Speech Act (RSA) framework. In our account the shape of the speaker's distribution matters in ways not predicted by the Lexical Uncertainty model standardly used in the RSA framework for vague predicates. We use our approach to draw further lessons concerning the semantic flexibility of vague expressions and their irreducibility to more precise meanings. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Linguistics & Philosophy is a copyright of Springer, 2023. All Rights Reserved. item: Linguistics & Philosophy holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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