Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Vague language - Coggle Diagram
Vague language
Social rules
-
-
-
-
-
The use of vague language by the speaker, is a conscious decision and for that
matter, it is not a sloppy expression or a product of careless thinking.
Mostly used in speaking, to make speech less direct and factual
-
-
-
-
-
Vague nouns
The word thing refers to objects which aren't described - we
don't know what the objects are, only that they exist! So in the example sentence
we don't know what the speaker is unhappy about.
Bit often refers to a part or section of something. Both bit and thing can be used if
we don't know the English word for something or if we've forgotten it.
The word stuff refers to more than one object. It is an uncountable noun.
• There's loads of stuff in the attic - can you have a look and see if any of its
yours?
Vagueness and numbers.
Some words allow you to give more detail than a
quantifier but are still vague. You can use around and about to give a vague idea
of a number. They can be used to give an idea of time or age too.
Slightly more formal, you can use or so in the same way.
Note that the phrase more or less is not usually used with numbers. It means
'almost', and we often use it to indicate if something is finished. I'm more or less
done here... I just need to double-check these sums before I print it off.
Quantifiers
Most quantifiers are quite vague. In this program we looked at how the words one
or two can refer to three, four or five things.
Other quantifiers include: a few, a couple of, a lot of, plenty of, loads of.