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Exploring Intensification: Synchronic, diachronic and cross-linguistic perspectives
Edited by Maria Napoli and Miriam Ravetto
[Studies in Language Companion Series 189] 2017
► pp. 371–390

Chapter 18
Intentional vagueness

A corpus-based analysis of Italian and German

| Università di Salerno
| Università di Salerno
In this article, we present a corpus-based analysis to illustrate the extent and the depth of the similarities in the use of Vagueness Expressions (VEs) in spoken Italian and German. Adopting a semiotic approach to the study of vagueness, we have investigated the frequency and the distribution of VEs, conveying informational, relational and discourse vagueness in conversations, non-free-dialogues and monologues. The two languages do not exhibit the same qualitative and quantitative distribution of VEs because (a) German has twice as many VEs as Italian and (b) in Italian VEs are fairly limited to spontaneous conversations, while German speakers use VEs in all kinds of texts conveying the three types of Vagueness. This suggests that in German VEs are part of the linguistic norm, and not only a choice on the part of the speaker.
Keywords: vagueness, systemic vagueness, intentional vagueness, Italian, German, corpus-based analysis, spoken language
Article outline
  • 1.Systemic vagueness and speaker’s vagueness
  • 2.Speaker’s vagueness and linguistic choices in Italian and German
  • 3.Data analysis
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.189.19vog
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D’Argenio, Elisa & Chiara Ghezzi
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Lo Baido, Maria Cristina
2024. Chapter 8. Vagueness explored. In Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 347], ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
Magni, Elisabetta
2024. Chapter 2. The role of ambiguity and vagueness in language change. In Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 347], ► pp. 10 ff. DOI logo
Voghera, Miriam
2024. Chapter 3. The role of ambiguity in intentional vagueness. In Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 347], ► pp. 29 ff. DOI logo
Gerhard-Krait, Francine, Marie Lammert, Hélène Vassiliadou & Maria Zerva
2023. Catégorisation et approximation à la manière de simili(-)X. Langages N° 229:1 ► pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Masini, Francesca & M. Silvia Micheli
2020. The morphological expression of approximation: the emergingsimil- construction in Italian. Word Structure 13:3 ► pp. 371 ff. DOI logo

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