Thursday, February 4, 2010
Vague
A vague sentence is one that can be understood in many different ways, so many that we have to ask the speaker what they mean to get a clear understanding. A recent vague sentence I have heard was not too long ago when I was talking to my friend. He said that he was thinking about buying a new pair of shoes. I asked him which shoes he was talking about. His response was "those one Jordans". As you can probably guess, I had no idea what shoes he was talking about. I had to ask him to clarify because there are a countless amount of Jordan shoes that it was extremely difficult to automatically know which ones he was talking about based on the description he gave me. He could have been talking about any one of the hundreds of pairs of Jordan brand shoes. I had an idea that he was talking about the newest pair that came out not too long ago but, once again I had no way of knowing for a fact what he meant. His answer was just too vague.
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Your vague statement definition and your example are both excellent examples. I agree that a vague statement never gives a definite answer but only a glimpse of what the person is really trying to say. Your example of your friend and his Jordan's is something that has probably happened to everyone. You ask a question and their response is so vague that your have to ask another question. Using an example like this was very clear and straight forward. I think these types of vague statements happen a lot, because when we’re communicating with friends and family we expect them to know what we’re talking about even though they don’t.
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