Vague and Ambiguious sentences are similar but they are still different enough to have different description names. A vague sentence is when the thought can be passed as many different meanings and the only way we could tell what the writter meant is if he elaborated further on the thought. An ambiguious sentence is when there is only a couple ways we could possibly percive the sentence.
An example of a vague sentence would be "I always get lucky when I play at Sycuan Casino." This is vague because it may be plausable but the problem is, how can we really tell if it is? I found it funny that after some examples the author talked about how most of our sentences are vauge and we don't notice it. He used an example about a student saying "My teacher was late on Tuesday." Which Tuesday was it? How late?... Get the point?
An example of an Ambiguious statement would be, "Half of the class cares a lot about their work." This would be ambiguious becasuse what does the other hald do, not care?
I think it is really tough to tell between these two types of statements but thats what makes them intriguing.
Big Cat,
ReplyDeleteYou used two very good examples but my favorite one is the casino example. It is very true that most of the time we don;t even realize how vague we really are being. For the casino example, naturally we would assume that he ment he got lucky while gambling since that is what people do at casinos. But he could have gotten lucky by finding money on the ground, he could have gotten lucky with a girl, or he could have even gotten lucky by having a near death experience and surviving. Your last example is kind of a funny one because people don't normally think about what the "other half" is doing. I get a good chuckle out of your post, Big Cat. Keep themm coming =].
And boom goes the dynamite,
Melvin Banner