Vagueness
One could define vagueness as the existence of borderline cases and characterise the philosophical debate on vagueness as being about the nature of these. The prevalent theories of vagueness can be divided into three categories, paralleling three logical interpretations of borderline cases: (i) a borderline case is a case of a truth-value gap; it is neither true nor false; (ii) a borderline case is a case of a truth-value glut; it is both true and false; and (iii) a borderline case is a case where the truth-value is non-classical. The third of these is proposed in the fuzzy logic approach to vagueness. Three-valued approaches have only \(\frac{1}{2}\) as a value in addition to the standard values 1 and 0. These approaches can be interpreted either as allowing for gaps or gluts, depending on how the notion of satisfaction or truth is defined. If a sentence is taken to be true only if its value is 1, it allows for gaps, but if it is taken to be true already if its value is at least \(\frac{1}{2}\) it allows for gluts. The most popular theories advertising gluts and gaps, however, are supervaluationism and subvaluationism, both of which make use of the notion of precisifications, that is, ways of making things precise. Truth-value gaps in supervaluationism are due to the way truth simpliciter, or supertruth, is defined: A proposition is supertrue (superfalse) if it is true (false) at all precisifications. This means that a proposition can be neither true nor false in case there exist two precisifications, one of which make it true and one of which makes it false. Conversely, in subvaluation theory, the same scenario would lead to a truth-value glut. That is, the proposition would be both true and false. This is because subvaluationism defines truth simpliciter as being true at some precisifcation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beck, S., Oda, T., Sugisaki, K.: Parametric variation in the semantics of comparison: Japanese vs. english. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 13, 289–344 (2004)
Bolinger, D.: Degree Words. Mouton, Den Haag (1972)
Bonini, N., Osherson, D., Viale, R., Williamson, T.: On the psychology of vague predicates. Mind and Language 14(4), 377–393 (1999)
Cresswell, M.: The semantics of degree. In: Partee, B. (ed.) Montague Grammar, pp. 261–292. Academic Press, London (1976)
Doetjes, J.: Incommensurability. In: Schulz, K., Aloni, M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, ILLC, AUP (2010)
Doetjes, J., Constantinescu, C., Součková, K.: A neo-kleinian approach to comparatives. In: Ito, S., Cormany, E. (eds.): Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XIX, New York, Ithaca (2008)
Dummett, M.: Wang’s paradox. Synthese 30, 301–324 (1975)
Fara, D.G.: Shifting sands: An interest-relative theory of vagueness. Philosophical Topics 20, 45–81 (2000)
Fine, K.: Vagueness, truth and logic. Synthese 30, 265–300 (1975)
Fisher, G.: Measuring ambiguity. The American Journal of Psychology 80(4), 541–557 (1967)
Gaifman, H.: Vagueness, Tolerance and Contextual Logic. Manuscript. Columbia University, New York (January 2002)
Hahn, U., Chater, N.: Similarity and rules: distinct? exhaustive? empirically distinguishable? Cognition 65, 197–230 (1998)
Heim, I.: Degree operators and scope. In: Proceedings of SALT, vol. 10. CLC Publications, Ithaca (2000)
Kamp, H.: Two theories of adjectives. In: Keenan, E. (ed.) Formal Semantics of Natural Language, pp. 123–155. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1975)
Kamp, H.: The paradox of the heap. In: Mönnich, U. (ed.) Aspects of Philosophical Logic, pp. 225–277. D. Reidel, Dordrecht (1981)
Kamp, H., Partee, B.: Prototype theory and compositionality. Cognition 75, 129–191 (1995)
Kennedy, C.: Projecting the adjective: the syntax and semantics of gradability and comparison. PhD. Thesis, UCSD (1997)
Kennedy, C.: Modes of comparison. In: Elliott, M., Kirby, J., Sawada, O., Staraki, E., Yoon, S. (eds.) Proceedings of Chicago Linguistic Society, vol. 43 (2007)
Kennedy, C.: Vagueness and grammar: The semantics of relative and absolute gradable predicates. Linguistics and Philosophy 30(1), 1–45 (2007)
Kennedy, C.: Vagueness and comparison. In: Egré, P., Klinedinst, N. (eds.) Vagueness and Language Use. Palgrave McMillan, Oxford (2010)
Kennedy, C., McNally, L.: Scale structure, degree modification and the semantics of gradable predicates. Language 81(2), 345–381 (2005)
Klein, E.: A semantics for positive and comparative adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy 4, 1–45 (1980)
Krifka, M.: Approximate interpretation of number words: A case for strategic communication. In: Vogel, I., Zwarts, J. (eds.) Cognitive Foundations of Communication. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschapen, Amsterdam (2007)
Lewis, D.: General semantics. Synthese 22, 18–67 (1970)
Moltmann, F.: Degree structure as trope structure: A trope- based analysis of positive and comparative adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy 32(1), 51–94 (2009)
Morzycki, M.: Degree modification of gradable nouns: size adjectives and adnominal degree morphemes. Natural Language Semantics 17(2), 175–203 (2009)
Neeleman, A., Koot, H.v.d., Doetjes, J.: Degree expressions. The Linguistic Review 21(1), 1–66 (2004)
Nouwen, R.: Degree modifiers and monotonicity. In: Egré, P., Klinedinst, N. (eds.) Vagueness and Language Use. Palgrave McMillan, Oxford (2010)
Pagin, P.: Vagueness and domain restriction. In: Klinedinst, N., Egré, P. (eds.) Vagueness and Language Use. Palgrave MacMillan, Oxford (2010)
Paradis, C.: Adjectives and boundedness. Cognitive Linguistics 12(1), 47–65 (2001)
Raffman, D.: Vagueness without paradox. Philosophical Review 103 (1), 41–74 (1994)
van Rooij, R.: Vagueness and linguistics. In: Ronzitti, G. (ed.) The Vagueness Handbook. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
van Rooij, R.: Implicit versus explicit comparatives. In: Egré, P., Klinedinst, N. (eds.) Vagueness and Language Use. Palgrave McMillan, Oxford (2010)
Rotstein, C., Winter, Y.: Total adjectives versus partial adjectives: scale structure and higher-order modifiers. Natural Language Semantics 12, 259–288 (2004)
Sauerland, U., Stateva, P.: Two types of vagueness. In: Egré, P., Klinedienst, N. (eds.) Vagueness and Language Use. Palgrave McMillan, Oxford (2010)
Seuren, P.A.M.: The comparative. In: Kiefer, F., Ruwet, N. (eds.) Generative Grammar in Europe, pp. 528–564. Reidel, Dordrechtz (1973)
Soames, S.: Understanding Truth. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999)
von Stechow, A.: Comparing semantic theories of comparison. Journal of Semantics 3, 1–77 (1984)
von Stechow, A.: Times as degrees: früh(er) ‘early(er)’, spät(er) ‘late(r)’, and phrase adverbs. Unpublished manuscript, Tübingen (2006)
Williamson, T.: Vagueness. Routledge, New York (1994)
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Nouwen, R., van Rooij, R., Sauerland, U., Schmitz, HC. (2011). Introduction. In: Nouwen, R., van Rooij, R., Sauerland, U., Schmitz, HC. (eds) Vagueness in Communication. VIC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6517. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18446-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18446-8_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-18445-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18446-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)