Why is our language vague? We argue that in contexts in which a cooperative speaker is not perfectly informed about the world, the use of vague expressions can offer an optimal tradeoff between truthfulness (Gricean Quality) and informativeness (Gricean Quantity). Focusing on expressions of approximation such as "around", which are semantically vague, we show that they allow the speaker to convey indirect probabilistic information, in a way that gives the listener a more accurate representation of the information available to the speaker than any more precise expression would (intervals of the form "between"). We give a probabilistic treatment of the interpretation of "around", and offer a model for the interpretation and use of "around"-statements within the Rational Speech Act (RSA) framework. Our model differs in substantive ways from the Lexical Uncertainty model often used within the RSA framework for vague predicates.
翻译:为什么我们的语言模糊?我们争辩说,在合作演讲者对世界不完全知情的情况下,使用模糊的表达方式可以在真实性(Gricean Quality)和信息性(Gricean Qative)之间提供最佳的权衡。我们注重“替代”等近似表达方式,这种表达方式在语义上是模糊的,我们表明它们允许演讲者间接传递概率性信息,使听众能够比任何更精确的表达方式(“介于”两种形式的对口)更准确地描述向演讲者提供的信息。我们对“替代”的解释进行概率性处理,并在理性演讲法(RSA)框架内提供一个解释和使用“替代”声明的模式。我们的模式在实质上不同于在RSA框架内用于模糊的前提时经常使用的词汇不确定性模式。