Indeterminacy, context, economy and well-formedness in specialist communication

Øivin Andersen | University of Bergen

In this article I make a contrast between the concepts of indeterminacy and well-formedness on the one hand, and the concepts of vagueness and exactness on the other hand. In the further distinction between determination (degree of vagueness) and specification (degree of generality) I exemplify with the genitive deverbal noun construction in Norwegian. Various approaches to the concept of context are discussed and I apply Kubińsky’s vagueness model to demonstrate that there are some areas of grammar, such as the categorial status of the parts of speech, where the question of membership very seldom arises, although gradience is present.

Keywords: categoriality, context, indeterminacy, well-formedness

Published online: 09 May 2007
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.8.04and

Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Ašanin Gole, Pedja & Mateja Mahnič

2018. LINKING TEACHING METHODS TO THE SATISFACTION AND SUCCESS OF STUDENTS IN ONLINE STUDY MODE. Balkans Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences :Vol 1, No 1 ► pp. 79 ff.

Condamines, Anne

2021. How can one explain “deviant” linguistic functioning in terminology?. Terminology. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication

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