Cover not available
Part of
Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest: Linguistic and pragmatic approaches
Edited by Ilaria Fiorentini and Chiara Zanchi
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 347] 2024
► pp. 1–8

Chapter 1
Introduction

How vague and ambiguous are vagueness and ambiguity?

| University of Pavia
| University of Pavia

The relationship between ambiguity and vagueness is traditionally considered rather complex. It is not always easy to distinguish between the two phenomena, and the two concepts may seem to overlap. This introduction aims to clarify what is generally understood by ambiguity and vagueness in previous scholarship and to emphasize the purpose of the volume, also in relation to the questions that remain open about the two phenomena. In presenting the chapters that make up the volume, an overview is given of how each of them responds to these questions. Finally, an attempt is made to draw some conclusions about the novel aspects brought about by the volume and possible future developments.

Keywords: ambiguity, vagueness, fuzziness, underspecification, generality
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Aims and scope of the volume
  • 3.The contributions in this volume
  • 4.Beyond this volume
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References
Chen, Guanyi, and Kees van Deemter
2023 “Varieties of specification: Redefining over- and under-specification.” Journal of Pragmatics 216: 21–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cotterill, Janet
2007 “ ‘I think He Was Kind of Shouting or Something’: Uses and Abuses of Vagueness in the British Courtroom.” In Vague Language Explored, ed. by Joan Cutting, 97–114. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cutting, Joan
2007 Vague language explored. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deemter, Kees van
2010 Not Exactly: In Praise of Vagueness. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Denison, David
2017 “Ambiguity and vagueness in historical change.” In The Changing English Language. Psycholinguistic perspectives, ed. by Marianne Hundt, Sandra Mollin, and Simone E. Pfenninger, 292–318. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dietz, Richard
2019 Vagueness and Rationality in Language Use and Cognition. Berlin: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Christopher
2019 “Ambiguity and vagueness: An overview.” In Semantics – Lexical Structures and Adjectives, ed. by Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger, and Paul Portner, 236–271. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Magni, Elisabetta
2016 “Sette tipi di ambiguità nel mutamento linguistico.” In Problemi e prospettive della linguistica storica, ed. by Patrizia Cordin, and Alessandro Parenti, 13–34. Roma: Il Calamo.Google Scholar
Tuggy, David
1993 “Ambiguity, polysemy and vagueness.” Cognitive Linguistics 4: 273–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Wiltrud
2020 Idioms and Ambiguity in Context. Phrasal and Compositional Readings of Idiomatic Expressions. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wasow, Thomas
2015 “Ambiguity avoidance is overrated.” In Ambiguity: Language and Communication, ed. by Susanne Winkler, 29–47. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Winkler, Susanne
2015 Ambiguity. Language and Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Qiao
1998 “Fuzziness – vagueness – generality – ambiguity.” Journal of Pragmatics 29: 13–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar