{"id":1132,"date":"2020-11-23T10:23:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T10:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cful.letras.ulisboa.pt\/lancog\/?p=1132"},"modified":"2020-11-23T10:23:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T10:23:49","slug":"seminar-series-in-analytic-philosophy-2020-21-session-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/seminar-series-in-analytic-philosophy-2020-21-session-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminar Series in Analytic Philosophy 2020-21, Session 9"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>On the Optimality of Vagueness<\/strong><br \/>\nPaul Egr\u00e9 (joint work with Benjamin Spector, Ad\u00e8le Mortier, Steven Verheyen)<br \/>\nInstitute Jean Nicod and \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9riore<\/p>\n<p>27 November 2020, 16:00<\/p>\n<p>Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa<br \/>\nSala Mattos Rom\u00e3o (Departamento de Filosofia) &amp; live-streamed<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abstract:<\/strong> What is the function of vagueness in language? We argue that in contexts in which a cooperative speaker is not perfectly informed about the world, the use of vague expressions can offer an optimal trade-off between truthfulness (Gricean Quality) and informativeness (Gricean Quantity). Focusing on expressions of approximation such as \u201caround\u201d&#8217;, which are semantically vague, we show that they allow the speaker to convey indirect probabilistic information, in a way that can give the listener a more accurate representation of the information available to the speaker than any more precise expression would (intervals of the form \u201cbetween\u201d). We give a probabilistic treatment of the interpretation of \u201caround\u201d, and offer a model for the interpretation and use of \u201caround\u201d-statements within the Rational Speech Act (RSA) framework. Broader lessons are drawn concerning the semantic flexibility of vague expressions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Free Attendance, but preregistration required:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cful.letras.ulisboa.pt\/lancog\/registration\/\">https:\/\/cful.letras.ulisboa.pt\/lancog\/registration\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the Optimality of Vagueness Paul Egr\u00e9 (joint work with Benjamin Spector, Ad\u00e8le Mortier, Steven Verheyen) Institute Jean Nicod and \u00c9cole Normale Sup\u00e9riore 27 November 2020, 16:00 Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa Sala Mattos Rom\u00e3o (Departamento de Filosofia) &amp; live-streamed Abstract: What is the function of vagueness in language? We argue that in contexts in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions\/1133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cful.demiurgos.eu\/lancog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}