8 The uses of vague language §.1 Introduction In previous chapters, I have introduced the idea of vague language use, and have looked in detail at the structure and meaning of several types of vague expressions. I now go on to describe and discuss tae ways in which speakers and writers use vague expressions. In Farticular, I examine what communicative effects arise from using vague expressions, and what goals speakers use them to achieve. &.2 Analytical approach The approach taken is broadly in the spirit of the work on conversa- tional interaction known as conversation analysis (CA). Levinson (1983, Chapter 6) provides a concise introduction, while Wootton (1981), for example, summarizes CA thus: In approaching interaction, then, it is the problems confronting Participants which are of interest in CA, and the systematic pro- cedures and designs through which such problems are displayed and resolved. There is no prior analytic ‘theory’ of interaction being applied. (ibid.: 103) . ‘Thus, I would share the analytic predilection sketched by Schenkein (1978: .2) that is to ‘take[ing] seriously the details of the natural interactions themselves’, and I try to be as true to the data as possible ty validating the analyses and categories I propose solely by refer- ence to what is observable within the extracts, This is not, unfortu- nately, always possible, For examples where the data is incomplete (such as no recording, or only a short extract), assumptions based on analogy have had to be made. Further difficulties for the analyst exe that many examples show a number of different conversational effects, and that it is often impossible to sort out quite what the 165Vague Language effect is. The fact that hearers may find themselves in this position is itself of interest. One difference between my work and CA is that I look as much at written as at spoken examples, especially written examples which seek, for particular effects, to imitate or be associated with spoken discourse, These are useful because they ‘can show up those aspects of spoken discourse which seem to identify its ‘spokeriness’. I begin by looking in some detail at three different kinds of extracts, These -—serve to-introduce both the.complexity-of the effects-under-observa-—- tion, and the kinds of categories of use which I want to suggest. 8.3 Three scenarios‘showing vagueness Eighty or so pence The importance of clean skin, Let Vichy explain, Vichy dedicate themselves solely we the ce ofthe skin, | For a clean, healthy akin is where beauty begins Te is catencial that you cleanse your face night and moming-but equally important that you cleanse. it gently, ‘That is why the laboratories at Vichy have produced Vichy Cleansing Mile and Vichy Tonie Lotion. ‘Applied with the fingertips and lightly:massaged into-your akin, the mild ingredients in Vichy Cleansing Milk gently absorb impurities. These can then be removed with cotton wool or tissue, ‘After this, an application of Vichy Tonic Lotion seeks out and removes the tae ecaces of the Cleansing Mill leaving your skin clea, soft and refreahed. ‘More clean, soft and refteshed, perhaps, than it has ever been, AAs your introduction to their way of skin care, Vichy would like you to receive this pack of their Cleansing Milk and:Tonic Lotion for £3, This does save you eighty or s0 pence, But itis as nothing to the kindness you will be showing your skin, [italics added) Gavertisement) possible to observe what communicative effects Uffderstood by iJ its readers. But it is possible, as a reader oneself, to list what they might be, Presumably Vichy know the retail prices of the products referred to. Brands of this up-market type do not normally allow shops to vary the prices of their products. Therefore, they know exactly how much ‘you’ are saving. The copywriter must have delib- 166 er‘The uses of vague language tely included an approximation to achieve one, or several, par- eral ticular effects. 1 The actual number is lower, say 77p. aw ee cprximaing impli he aio any, «ene vig than is really the case. (This is similar to the p' 1g ploy: £4.99’. is the actual saving is not very 2 ee pea much information_as is _ important, This approximation gives = Fy necessary, and knowing the exact figure will not give readers information they need to know —it will be redundant. The relative unimportance of the sum of money involved is confirmed by the content of the next sentence. 3 It is for self-protection. Retail prices do vary, so savings will different in different.shops. The advertiser ensures he is ing the Advertising Standards Association’s requirement to honest, decent and truthful’ by using an approxi- I once wrote to the ASA suggesting that they should @ person trained in linguistics to uncover all the mis- statements which are systematically perpetrated by implicacures in advertisements. Regrettably, but unsurprisingly, they were not interested. 4 It sets a tone of chatty informality—phatic communion between advertiser and reader. Test respondents who were asked about the use of vagueness (in semi-formal group discussions conducted at the conclusion of the tests described in previous chapters) sug- lt £ Hi formal conversations (the sixth-formers’ ae ant ieee interview’). The copywriter is trying here to render the effect of conversation. : Any of these effects could be understood by readers of this advertisement. Elaborated code and things like that 1 ’ a (erase on naen of language capacity in humans. EA, the tutor, is me}Vague Language A: What about this business about [ (laughs) [ A: it doesn’t matter how intelligent the individual is they all manage to achieve the same “level of linguistic competence i E: do they D: “a level anyway A: well everyone achieves intelligibility E yeah yeah okay—within a Set group ~~~~~~~~ [ mean you ~~enn~~ ~~ A a; " tthere’s been a lot of work done to show that there’s no difference in sophistication between one language variety and another E: I'm talking about you know sort of acceptable middle class language and (.) sort of working class language you know Bernstein and mm you know sort of elaborated code and things like that C: well that’s more environment isn’t it [ E: yeah [ G it's the way you OU ree D: most people achieve competence if E: yeah yeah a lot of the time (,) a lot of the time it’s linked to intelligence as well but is it at least it is in schools—if you can "sound more intelligent by the way you speak you are categorized as being intelligent : well yes but never mind about “categorized as being more intelligent—you “aren’t more intelligent are you : but what do you mean by intelligent Bp > mp 168The uses of vague language C: it’s a very good question E: yeah by middle class based intelligence tests A: because if you use “other intelligence tests [ E: which is what the elab- orated code proved [continues] Speaker E precedes her exemplar and vague tag (elaborated code and things like that) with considerable hesitation—a pause, two sort cfs, two you knows, and an mm. These are indications that (among cther things) she is not sure what she is talking about. The sub- sequent turns all feel able to treat what she has said as wrong, and they are permitted to do this by her unsureness. Speakers D, A, and k,, all disagree in some way with her. Duncan and Fiske (1977) in their work on turn-taking, think that expressions like or something facilitate hearer interruption, but they do not show enough data to test this assertion, I would say that my data does not show this, What it does show, in some instances, is increased possibility for hearer disagreement/criticism, as, for example, I discuss below for this extract. Later in the same discussion, E makes explicit that (a) she does not know or understand the subject matter of the talk very well, and (b) she does not command with any certainty the language necessary for the topic of discussion, as we can see from the follow- ing extract. Extract 2 {later in same discussion, talking about an article by Putnam) E: Pil tell you what I found difficult in this—all these different symbols—I didn’t know what they meant A: where E: in this Putnam thing. B: E: that I class as being sigma—the sum of 169Vague Language A: [reading] a highly restrictive sigma class of grammars— | 1 don’t think you need to worry about that ; E: but I did—I mean I just sort of Worried about it . [continues with details of losing first page, wurrying, etc.] A: you mean this bit at the beginning where he.says [reading] we should assume that the speaker has a built-in function which assigns weights to grammars G1.G2 and G3 /E: mm hhh/ to a certain class sigma of transformational grammars E: and immediately I thought [loud] don’t understand this put it down’ (laugh) A: I hope you went on reading that because it becomes "much clearer after that E: no—l get terrified | [continues with details of nervousness amid general laughter] On this basis, I suggest that one use of vague language is to enable | a speaker to talk about a subject he or she is not very knowledgeable about, or a subject where he or she does not know the necessary vocabulary. On this last point, elaborated code and things like that directs hearers to access a category. It may well be that there is no clear superordinate term for this category, Certainly, there was no Particular sign of agreement among, the respondents in my tests ag to what it would be. If there is one, E did not .know it, so her vagueness may show her finding a way of actually talking about something she does not quite have the vocabulary to express, There is a way in which E works around what she means to say, using items of vocabulary relevant to her point, It is interesting that speaker C does not appear to be bothered by the:multipleiuncertainties in what E has said. She refers back to it with a definite that. The subsequent turns show, I think, that all the speakers decide that what is being talked about is different language varieties and their relationship to measures of intelligence. There is another point about what E says. She uses, as noted, a lot of vagueness. Yet there is evidence that she does not feel that uncertain about what she is saying. Notice her refusing to give up the turn to either C or D, As she goes on there is a noticeable absence of vagueness. Leaving aside the sort ofs for a moment, it seems “~~ -—=—ghe-cotsid -have-rather-suecessfully-defined-e-eategory-(?er two)—-. -—..-| 170eas The uses of vague langnase and working-class language—without the vagueness, and without her very unclear elaborated|code and things Ike that. It is also the case, a8 I noted, that her hearers react to what she says as definite. SO perhaps this vagueness is for something else. Notice that the purpose turn in which the vague tag occurs is to disagree with what A has sai about everyone achieving compet~ ence. We can see that A (who is the tutor) takes an! assertive role in changing the direction of the conversation by her question on a new topic, and in asking a direct question to the tutorial group (and, as usual with teachers, one to which she already knows several answers; sre Coulthard 1977: 104 for this observation). Given A's assertive tehaviour, F's vagueness may be a marker of deference to someone established ‘as more powerful in the context of this, discussion, (cf., Schenkein 1978, ‘Identity Negotiations in Conversation’; Brown and Levinson 1987). E is clearly quite determined to get her.point out, She resists all interruptions, including A’s very firm attempt to cut her off (there’s been a lot of work done). Yet she must ‘contin mark deference to A, even while disagreeing with ber. One = al aspect of the two extracts is that they show s eakers ‘ pons Te of ie arising from, perhaps, salle fiche Aibject, lack ee wedge, and the unequal relationship of the students to the middle-class language Humorous effects ‘The punchline of cartoon stei i ip 1 (page 172) is provi betel pare the source of the eae see Cees Re oa Re vague tag itself works, First a gloss of the storyline: ea en to Graceland (the Elvis Presley memorial) and ater e with what looks like a pile of varied Elvis memor- m5 mG her if she has-bought any souvenirs. We see that pealye ct she has bought a ludicrous quantity of them. A poses or something ‘would be an inadequate description of what each gh. Hence the ironical humour. The joke provides ari wae ey ' rv pter 6—that i 2 ¢gory of which the exemplar is understood as a4 | ot eames if that we ere not the meaning, there would be no irony and the joke . Boopsie-uses-just-or-something 28 ther (agreeing) 171Jo oT unt ne n x Ying th ¢ he nGht an 10 Gnice's es nnannm _ G G 0The uses of vague language reply, That works, I think, to tell us that although her souvenirs could be described by a postcard or something, what she has got is anything but a postcard, and indeed has rather different character- istics from a postcard, ‘Conversationally, we may understand the punchline as a form of withholding —Boopsie does not want to confess to B.D. exactly what she has got (cf., his reaction in the next strip, number 2). ‘What makes number 3 funny? Probably that Riley shows by his use of vagueness that he does not know what he is talking about in the field of medical care (neither does Duke, as fans of the strip will know, but that is not evidenced here). Boil some water is additionally funny, because it occurs classically in ‘anxious father at emergency delivery’ jokes. The category identified by boil some water or some- ting would include, on my reading, other items of folk medical knowledge, Notice that this or something could also be deference behaviour, followed as it is by sir. One thing a cartoonist is anxious to do is to create a naturalistic conversation effect. Two tags on one page suggests that he judges them as salient markers of informal conversation, in the same way as the advertising copywriter did, In these three extracts, a diversity of conversational effects has been observed, I would like now to firm up these observations by looking at further examples and suggesting a categorization of con- versational effects. &.4 Giving the right amount of information (4) We saw in the cosmetics advertisement example that one possible vse of vagueness is to tailor an utterance such that the right amount cf information is given. Grice (1975) noticed that speakers appear +0 tailor their contributions in particular ways, and he suggested that the maxim of Quantity (described in Chapter 2) has two parts: 1 Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange) 2 Do not make your contribution more informative than is required, (ibid.: 45) The examples in this section show these rules being used, and show that vague expressions are one device which speakers use to tailor their contributions such that they give the right amount of 173Vague Language ation for the purpose of the conversation. Grice notes that his second mexitssdoputable—it might be vad that to be nections ative is not a transgression of the CP but merely a waste of time’. | think the evidence from as Ss that the second part of the maxim of Quantity is indeed a rule of conversation, the transgressing of et produces, as predicted by the Grice account, pacticalad ‘ implicatures, We saw in Chapter 6 the text cited by'Rosch, which contained many overspecifications and which produced a humorous or ironic effect, Some respondents recognize this consciously, When I asked the respondents in the number approximation test (reported in Chapter 3) about the use of approximations, one of them said: ‘I think it’s more used, because it doesn’t convey more information than if you knew the exact figure—if you say to someone ‘it cost five hundred or 80 pounds’ —if they know it cost five hundred and thirty nine it’s not going to get them any further’ Clearly, though, we must add ‘for the purpose of that conversation’, because there are obviously occasions when knowing it was exactly £539 would be necessary, for example, in a banking or accounting context, Sadock (1977) and Wachtel (1981) in their writing on number approximations both notice that approximations can be used to vary the amount of. information given, Crystal and Davy (1975; 111-114) observe that vagueness is quite appropriate in some conversations. I asked one of the test respondents why a speaker would not give the exact-amount, even if he knew it; he said ‘because: in casual conversation like that you'don’t go’ into details like that’, We have seen this as one possible effect involved in the advertising copy eighty or so pence. A less complex example is: [geraniums] There’s a room downstairs you see which is only one floor and Bets really cold and I lost two or three with the frost [B] In this example, so few geraniums. are in question that a hearer may well conclude that the speaker must: know how many he or she lost. Notice that being told the exact number will not contrib- ute anything of useful interest to the hearer: the speaker could equally have said some or a few. The speaker has avoided Seed Precise, in view of the purpose of the conversation, and its possil informal setting. 174The uses of vague language ing informant work] ; onary pe ae a cof them but I’m only going to talk We t al te three of them today [A] ae P inguist engaged in phonetics research must know how See eS has. But it is not relevant to the audience to an} be 7 . a eae this for the purpose of the paper he is " ut to orev information which is important to them is that ¢l cate elon told about three informants. Tailoring the amount of inform ee by using an approximation in direct contrast with in exact mu je: (three) may have the effect of focusing attention towards, or fore- grounding, what is considered most important in the utterance, Using an approximation here communicates something like ‘don’t pay too much attention to this, it’s not very important’. . My work on approximations in academic writing on economics (Channell 1990) showed similarly how writers adjust how much precision they include, and interviews with authots indicated their unconscious understanding of the maxim of Quantity. For example, one of the economists wrote: | The main phase of expansion in area occurred under Krushchev's Virgin Land Programme in the 1950s [E) where the writer's comment is: | ‘I think it’s more stylistic than anything in that there is a precise set of dates for that particular programme but I|felt that it prob- ably wasn’t of that much relevance to the wade what those pre- cise dates were.” | Similarly, the other economist explained his choice of over 50 per cent as ‘near enough from the point of this generalized introduction’, and sums up by saying, ‘I would say that the data is precise enough for the purpose it serves.’ C explained the disadvantages she saw attaching to the use of too many precise figures as follows: ‘On the whole I don’t think it's a good idea to| put an awful fot of figures in the text and it makes terribly unint ing reading— if they’te not important the danger is if there ate a lot of figures in, people focus on the figures-and miss the gist of the argument whereas if you simply describe and say “it’s | it’s small”, you get your point across without putting a smokes¢reen round what you're trying to say.” 175Vague Language Teis important to be clear that in these examples of academic writing, writers usually have at their disposal the means of giving exact fig- ures, but that they choose not to. For example, for this extract from an econometrics paper, the authors will know the exact level of significance referred to below but for the purpose of their argument it is not relevant to give it: ‘The corresponding two break version of Chow’s test yields an F value of 2.24 with (6,61) degrees of freedom and since the relevant 5 per cent critical value is 2.25 we are led to reject the null hypo- thesis of structural homogeneity across G's 70 country sample in favour of the alternative hypothesis that a pair of structural breaks occurred at observations 24 and 52 at a significance level fraction- ally in excess of S per cent (italics added) (E] In order to observe the converse—use of precision in contexts which demand it—I will now consider data from three BBC Radio 4 pro- grammes on financial topics: Money Box, The Financial World Tonight, and It's a Bargain, as well as data from the economics writers. In the radio programmes there were overall very few examples of any kind of vagueness, There was a noticeable absence of vague tags—one occurrence of and the like in an interview. It might be thought that this was because-vagueness is unacceptable altogether on Radio 4. However, this is not the case, since vague expressions did in fact occur in a particular context: that of making predictions about the future, and I shall discuss some examples in the section below on ‘Lacking specific information’, Two extracts will show the salience of precision for the purposes of these sorts of programmes. The first is a stock market report from The Financial World Tonight: and on the immediate issue Dalgety gained six to two eighty after those figures (.) otherwise ‘firm’ best describes the way the market traded with the FT index up three point eight at four hundred and eighty nine point three—gains among leading shares ranged from two to four pence (.) like Beecham up three at one hundred and eighty—Blue Circle up four at three hundred and eighty six and Grand Met up four at one hundred and sixty six Here, the changes in share prices must be provided exactly for those who listen to them. The second extract is from It’s a Bargain, a 176The uses of vague language programme with a very different purpose from that of The Financial World Tonight, since it is to tell listeners the usual prices of consumer goods at the bottom end of the market, and thus perhaps has a very different target audience. The BBC guide price works out at one hundred and ninety nine pounds (.) cheaper than guide price we discovered two models at ‘a hundred and seventy five pounds [. ..] cheaper still we found a cooker with a small oven and push button ignition to the hot plate only (.) and this was the "Valor Corvette™ (.) it’s on special offer from North Thames Gas at a hundred and sixty two pounds and seven pence—but from the Comet Discount Shops it’s a hun- dred and fifty four pounds ninety "excluding their delivery charge which is two pounds seventy five In this context precise prices are given. In these two cases, it certainly dives ‘get you further’ to be told the exact numbers. The economics papers contained many examples of precise num- bers and precise dates, Here is an example from the econometrics paper: Considering HW’s 86 country data set, the above graphical pro- cedure suggested the existence of a first structural break at obser- vation 26 (Bolivia) with a per capita GNP of US$649 and of a second break at observation 68, which emerged from HW’s own analysis, I obtained a specific response from economist C as to what she expected her readers to know, and what she needed to tell them, in relation to the following: The reforms initiated under the Food Programme have been rein- forced in policy proposals for the Twelfth Plan Period (1986-90) where she said: ‘I suppose somebody who wasn’t particularly up to date on what the Soviets were doing wouldn't know what the Twelfth Plan Period was.’ “Would your readers know?’ ‘No, certainly not the plan periods,’ Such uses contrast obviously with choices like in the mid-1980s, and 177Vague Language are used just when readers need to know exact numbers in order to follow the argument of the paper, Readers may test this against their intuitions by substituting approximations for each number in the above extract (Considering HW’s data set of approximately 90 countries. . .). These comparisons show (a) that the amount of information given is tailored for the perceived: purposes of the interaction’ and, (b) that vague expressions can be used where less precision is judged to be required. 8.5 Deliberately withholding information ® Many (non-linguist) English speakers who have talked to me about vague language use have emphasized the extent to which vagueness is deployed deliberately, They suggest that they often use it to withhold information which in some sense might be'expected by their hearers in a given situation. We;saw an example which I suggested might show this, where Boopsie in the Doonesbury cartoon gives only an inexplicit Indication of what she has bought. Another example which might be heard as withholding is: B: could you give me some idea-of how long it would take C: well the quote might be done-within three or four days but the job won’t be done for at least five weeks [B] This three or four days can be seen as unhelpful and insufficiently informative. On the other hand, it could-be:that the speaker really does not want to commit himself ‘on when-the estimate will be done, 80 this would be a defensive tactic,:like’those described in a sub- sequent section. An example reported to me was the following: She’s about 29 years old [A] This appears to be withholding the exact age, since when questioned, the speaker claimed she had used this form because women do not like to be said to be thirty. ae ; ‘We saw another kind of withholding of information in connection with placeholder nouns in Chapter 7. The film reviewer who deliber- ately did not use the name of the star of the film he was reviewing: 178