Faculty of Letters and Languages – M’sila

Department of English

Level: Master 01

Course: critical thinking

Instructor: Mrs. Amirouche

Student: Saadi Omar

Language phenomena

The ordinary listener or reader might encounter certain instances where he/she cannot
determine which is the meaning intended .from the critical thinker perspective the one ought to
put close attention when it comes to these ambiguous situations that is called the language
phenomena. Among which we can find ambiguity, vagueness, irony, implicitly relative sentences
and problems with the utilization of quantifiers.

First, ambiguity or ambiguous sentences are when there is more than one interpretation to
the statement and the reader or listener is confused which one is the right one. For instance the
following sentence conveys two different meanings: “she is looking for a match “ the first is that
she wants to set fire so she needs that inflammable small stick , and the second is that she is
looking for a suitable partner or husband; this ambiguity is called lexical ambiguity. Indeed,
there are other lexical ambiguities when a word or statement is not clear and open to
interpretation. These kinds of ambiguities are generally used polemically by different opposed
groups in politics or debates in order to defend their stands or to refute their counterparts’. And
to avoid these bumps we need to put a lot of attention to the context in which the words are used
and the probable meanings the speaker/writer might intends .On the other hand there is another
ambiguity which is syntactic ambiguity; it occurs when the arrangement of words in a given
sentence have different possible meanings and let no evidence for the reader or listener to
consider on the basis of the context. In such cases, in general, we intuitively pick one alternative
and neglect the others. Critical thinker in order to avoid such problematic statements can write or
state clearer statements that have one interpretation and close the door for alternative
understandings. For example, instead of saying: Toilet out of order, please use floor below !The
intended meaning here is not using the floor literally but using the toilet under the floor, we can
say “use the toilet under the floor “ in order to avoid misunderstanding.

Second, vagueness is a common feature in many words and phrases in any language and it is
more difficult to spot in comparison with ambiguity.in fact, some terms and phrases have no
agreeable meanings or interpretations and people in different levels deliberately use them to hide
their real intentions or to mislead us to believe what they want us to. Words are vague when their
meanings are not clear or agreed about and thus they are used without caution sometimes, and to
convey certain meanings or serve hidden agendas in other times. for instance , terms like
“racism” , “feminism”, “harassment”, “terrorism”, “antisimism” and many others are used on
media or official levels vaguely and without clear meanings in minds and it is used because of
the heavy loads of feelings of approval or disapproval that arouse in the receiver mind. The
word Terrorism for example is a polemic word that could be used to convey: inhuman,
destructive activity, ruthless if it is conducted by the enemy, but in fact it could mean: patriotic,
legitimate resistance against external violence.

Third, the next language phenomenon is irony. In many cases people use irony in their daily
life language without even think about it. Irony became spontaneously used and conveys
opposite meanings in some situations. For example, when someone says “thank you! Great!
Good job!, it, is not necessarily he is praising the situation but rather he is trying to say “you
screwed it up “. though it becomes a part of daily language for numerous people, it is important
to mention that sometimes it cannot be easily spot or it can be misinterpreted by the audience
.moreover, the one who uses irony must put in mind the cultural differences between
communities and societies, because what it could be ironic in a given setting, could be offensive
in another. For that matter, critical thinker should be aware of when and how to use it.

Fourth, the next language obstacle we might encounter is the implicitly relative sentences that
hides a connotative comparison between different objects without stating them directly .for
instance when a speaker says “M’sila is too hot “he is implicitly comparing it to its close
northern neighbors where the temperature is relatively lower. In effect, implicitly relative
sentences sometimes mischievously used to support a claim or position that reality and science
are against it. For example, in the western hemisphere, there is a famous claim about wages gap.
Some activists claim that women are significantly earn less than men in North America and
Western Europe. However, when the claim is put under examination, it turns to be relatively
false with regards to the nature of the job, the risks, the number of work hours and other criteria.
As critical thinkers, we should avoid any direct assumptions and we should ask more questions
to get a clearer idea about the statement before making a judgment or taking a stand.

Fifth, the problem with the use of quantifiers is another phenomenon that needs a lot of
attention from the critical thinker. People are using quantifiers in a rather random way.
statements like “all politicians in Algeria are corrupt “ or “all Algerians speak French “ can be
easily proven to be false, though the speaker intention is obvious that they mean most of the
politicians are corrupt or most of Algerians can speak French .basically , the confusion that
comes with the use of quantifiers stems from the insufficient precision of these quantifiers . All,
every, almost, never and other quantifiers generally represent the need of the speaker to
generalize. These generalizations help people to understand the world and to categorize different
phenomena into separate classifications. However, most of these generalizations are not used
literally but rhetorically. Also they fall into two different parts: hard and soft generalizations, we
use all, every, never, always for hard generalizations and we use generally, typically, most of for
the soft ones.

Other quantifiers like some, none, only, few leave the meanings open to interpretations and need
to be hedged in more precise ways in order to convey the accurate meaning. For instance when a
student says “none of the teachers is generous with regards marks” it is easy to refute the
statement because it is easy to prove that there are some teachers who are encouraging and
agreeable, though the accurate meaning of the statement could be such as “almost all teachers are
not generous with regards marks”.

To sum up, linguistic phenomena can significantly affect the intended meaning by the speaker
or the writer and critical thinkers must be aware of the use and the arrangement of the words, the
context, the possible interpretations and the generalizations that people tend to use in order to get
the most accurate meanings intended, and to avoid misleading or manipulation.