Abstract
According to Drew and Heritage (1992 p. 22), workplace or institutional interaction ‘involves an orientation /…/to some core goal, task or identity /…/ conventionally associated with the institution’; that is, it is characterized by a focus of the discourse participants on accomplishing workplace tasks. Such a focus on workplace goals should result logically in a kind of discourse which is factual and precise, and does not contain too much vagueness or ambiguity. The use of vague expressions such ‘sort of’, ‘stuff like that’, ‘or something’ is usually associated with informal, casual conversation, not with work-related talk.
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© 2007 Almut Koester
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Koester, A. (2007). ‘About Twelve Thousand or So’: Vagueness in North American and UK Offices. In: Cutting, J. (eds) Vague Language Explored. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230627420_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230627420_3
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