Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest: Linguistic and Pragmatic Approaches (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 347)

This book aims to address a gap in the existing literature on the relationship between vagueness and ambiguity, as well as on their differences and similarities, both in synchrony and diachrony, and taking into consideration their relation to language use. The book is divided into two parts, which address specific and broader research questions from different perspectives. The former part examines the differences between ambiguity and vagueness from a bird-eye perspective, with a particular focus on their respective functions and roles in language change. It also presents innovative linguistic resources and tools for the study of these phenomena. The second part contains case studies on vagueness and ambiguity in language change and use. It considers different strategies and languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Medieval Latin, and Old Italian. The readership for this volume is broad, encompassing scholars in a range of disciplines, including pragmatics, spoken discourse, conversation analysis, discourse genres (political, commercial, notarial discourse), corpus studies, language change, pragmaticalization, and language typology. Chapter 1 Introduction 1. Introduction 2. Aims and scope of the volume 3. The contributions in this volume 4. Beyond this volume Acknowledgements References Part I Vagueness and ambiguity Chapter 2 The role of ambiguity and vagueness in language change 1. Ambiguity and vagueness in language use 1.1 Ambiguity vs. vagueness 1.2 Three forms of semantic indeterminacy 1.3 The role of context and uncertainty 2. Ambiguity and vagueness in language change 2.1 The role of knowledge and choices 2.2 Polysemy and ambiguity 2.3 Ambiguity as a source and a product of innovation 2.4 Metaphors and vagueness 2.5 Generality, ambiguity, and vagueness 3. Concluding remarks References Chapter 3 The role of ambiguity in intentional vagueness 1. Introduction 2. Systemic vagueness 3. Systemic vagueness and ambiguity 4. Intentional vagueness 5. Looking for ambiguity in vagueness expressions: A corpus-based analysis 6. Conclusive remarks Acknowledgements References Chapter 4 Vagueness and ambiguity are very different (persuasion devices) 1. Vagueness and ambiguity: Different or continuous phenomena? 2. Vagueness and ambiguity as persuasion devices 2.1 Persuasive vagueness 2.2 Persuasive ambiguity 2.3 Two different (almost opposite) persuasive processes 3. Experimental evidence 3.1 Previous research and present research hypotheses 3.2 Design and procedure 3.3 Results and discussion 4. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Chapter 5 Ambiguity in discourse 1. Studying ambiguity across disciplines 1.1 Definitions 1.1.1 Ambiguity, vagueness, and underspecification 1.1.2 Strategic and non-strategic ambiguity 1.1.3 Further distinctions 2. Structure of the corpus 3. Non-strategic ambiguity 3.1 Non-strategic ambiguity production 3.1.1 The letters of Paul 3.1.2 Ambiguity in news headlines 3.2 Non-strategic perception 4. Strategic ambiguity 4.1 Strategic production 4.1.1 The letters of Paul 4.1.2 Strategic production: Two examples from fiction 4.2 Strategic perception 5. Communication levels 6. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Part II Vagueness and ambiguity in language change and use Chapter 6 Underspecification and ambiguity of voice markers 1. Introduction 2. Towards a typology of voice syncretism 2.1 Voice markers and their functions 2.1.1 Argument-structure preserving diatheses 2.1.2 Argument-structure modifying diatheses 2.1.3 Argument co-reference marking diatheses 2.1.4 A typology of diatheses: Summary 2.2 Voice syncretism patterns 3. Underspecification and ambiguity in voice syncretism 3.1 Underspecification and ambiguity 3.1.1 Underspecification and ambiguity: The contradiction test 3.1.2 Underspecification and ambiguity: The zeugma test 3.2 Solving the riddle: The role of context in underspecification and ambiguity 3.2.1 Lexical cues 3.2.2 Grammatical cues 3.2.3 Co-textual and situational cues 4. The diachrony of voice markers 4.1 Survey of diachronic changes in the voice domain 4.2 The role of context in the grammaticalization of voice markers 4.3 Explaining bidirectionality: Voice markers as interface operators 5. Conclusions Acknowledgements References Chapter 7 Vague stuff 1. Introduction 2. Rēs and causa from Latin to Old Italian 3. Cosa as a GE in present-day Italian 4. Data and methodology 5. Cose-based GEs in CODIT corpus 6. Cose-based GEs in LIP and KIParla 7. Conclusions Acknowledgements References Dictionaries Chapter 8 Vagueness explored 1. Introduction and overview: The linguistic expression of vagueness 2. The linguistic expression of vagueness: Some theoretical premises 2.1 Systemic vs intentional vagueness 2.2 Means to be vague in discourse: From taxonomic nouns to parentheticals and beyond 2.3 Methodology: Object of analysis, corpus, and parameters 3. Vagueness in discourse through the lens of comment clauses 3.1 Informative vagueness: Approximation on the content level 3.2 Relational vagueness: Between epistemic functions, epistemic exemplification, and attenuation 3.2.1 Relational vagueness: Epistemic functions 3.2.2 A special case of relational vagueness: Epistemic commitment and categorisation aims 3.2.3 Relational vagueness: The case of attenuation 3.3 Discursive vagueness: Diluting discourse while planning utterances on-line 4. Concluding remarks References Chapter 9 Using ambiguity and vagueness to avoid problematic answers 1. Introduction 2. Ambiguity and vagueness: Flaws or communicative strategies? 3. Methodology 4. Analysis 4.1 Abbastanza to quantify or measure something 4.2 Abbastanza to evaluate something 5. Discussion: How much enough is ‘enough’? 6. Conclusions and prospects References Appendix 1. The questionnaire Chapter 10 Vagueness and ambiguity of perlocutionary effects in Prime Minister’s Question time sessions 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical model 2.1 The illocutionary act and clarity 2.2 Vagueness 2.3 Ambiguity 2.4 Vagueness, ambiguity and perlocutionary effects 3. Corpus analysis 3.1 Corpus 3.2 Methods 3.3 Results and discussion 3.3.1 TM_PMQ 3.3.2 BJ_PMQ 4. Conclusion References Research corpus Chapter 11 Place names in legal texts 1. Introduction 2. Vagueness and ambiguity in notarial texts 3. Corpus and historical background 4. Ubicatory terminology 4.1 The community of notaries of the Bergamo area (Langobardia maior) 4.2 The community of notaries of the Salerno area (Langobardia minor) 5. Conclusions Acknowledgements References Primary sources Index