Saturday, September 4, 2010
Vague Sentences
I do not quite understand ambiguous sentences yet so I will use a vague sentence example for this post. A vague sentence is defined as a sentence that makes you think about what it means so much that you have to ask the speaker for clarification. For example, today before I started work a coworker that was on her way out said “I got burned.” Did you burn yourself on the grill? Did oil splash on your arm? Did you touch hot food? Were you outside in the past couple of days and get sunburned? I figured out she meant from leaning on the grill because my boss came over and started talking about how she did cooking. All the questions that popped up in my head categorize it as a vague sentence because I needed clarification that I got from my boss. Vague sentences are pretty common if you think about it but most of the time we get what is meant so we make nothing of it.
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Hey AV Frias!
ReplyDeleteI’m on the same page as you, I still don’t quite understand ambiguous sentences either, but I’m sure we’ll both be able to understand them soon. You do make a great point that vague sentences are common in everyday life. I really did not think about that until I read your post. I got to thinking and now I can see that I am pretty positive I hear a vague sentence every day. Also, since we do hear them often we do not really think anything of them because they are normal to hear from other people. Our textbook has gotten me thinking about stuff I hear every day and I let it fly over my head, but now that I have read about vague sentences, subjective claims, etc. I understand that we hear this daily from friends, family, and just conversations in general.
Glad I got you thinking and I hope you've gotten a grasp on ambiguous sentences. Maybe someday vague sentences can be a thing of the past, at least for us.
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