Epstein defines a vague sentence at the beginning of chapter 2. “A sentence is vague if there are so many ways to understand it that we can’t settle on one of those without the speaker making it clearer” (Epstein, 14). In our society we make vague statements far too often. Many times we have to ask the speaker to make clarifications if possible.
I am reminded of when my friend and I were talking about the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. “Which one was Geoffrey Rush?” my friend asks. “He was that one crazy pirate,” I explain. “Who? Jack Sparrow?” he replies. I was being too vague in my statement.
If I had said that he was the captain of the Black Pearl besides Jack Sparrow, then it would have been clearer. However, seeing how you look at it from a technical standpoint, there were multiple captains for the Black Pearl through the series. At least my friend would have a narrower view of whom I was talking about.
“A special case of vagueness is when there are just two, or a very few, obvious ways that a sentence could be understood as a claim” (Epstein, 16). In this case, my “captain besides Jack Sparrow” comment would count as an ambiguous sentence. The main thing to remember from this section is to always be as clear as possible, or necessary, when making claims.
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