Interpreting Vague Language: Beginning

Created by Daniel Greene in 2013
A Study in Vague Language -
Beginning
Daniel Greene, MA, NIC Master

Who am I?
Recently got my Master of Arts in
Interpreting Studies, with an
emphasis in Teaching Interpreting,
from Western Oregon University,
where I wrote my thesis “Keeping
it vague: A study of vague
language in an American Sign
Language corpus and implications
for interpreting between English
and American Sign language.”

Who are you?
How many K–12 interpreters?
How many postsecondary?
How many community?
How many legal/judicial?
How many VRS/VRI?
Have you ever encountered
vague language in your work?

1 ﬁfteen–
minute break
Agenda
3 CEUs3 hours
=

Questions?
Stop me, or
Wait-n-see, or
Pass me a note, or
Email me@danielgreene.com
?

Workshop Description
Participants will explore the phenomenon of vagueness and the
expression of vagueness in language, study vague language (VL)
theory, analyze the communicative purposes and social meanings of
VL, and consider the variables involved in interpreting & translating VL.

Learning Objectives
1.Define vagueness and give
examples of vagueness in natural
phenomena and social life.
2.Define vague language (VL).
3.Name at least five functions, or
communicative purposes, of VL.
4.Describe where interpreters and
translators confront VL and how
they tackle it.

Essential Questions
How do people interpret vague language without an interpreter?
How do interpreters interpret vague language?

What is Vagueness?

Deﬁne: Vague
vague |veɪg|
adjective
of uncertain, indeﬁnite, or unclear
character or meaning: many
patients suffer vague symptoms.
thinking or communicating in an
unfocused or imprecise way: he
had been very vague about his
activities.
DERIVATIVES
vague•ness noun,
vagu•ish adjective
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from
French, or from Latin vagus
‘wandering, uncertain’ (New
Oxford American Dictionary).

Williams, 1994
“A concept is vague:
if the concept's extension is
unclear;
if there are objects which one
cannot say with certainty whether
belong to a group of objects which
are identiﬁed with this concept or
which exhibit characteristics that
have this predicate (so-called
"border-line cases");
if the Sorites paradox applies to
the concept or predicate.”

The Sorites Paradox
How many grains of sand do you have to remove from a heap of
sand before it is no longer a heap?

What do you suppose is vague in the
world, other than vague language?

Borderline case: “The circle both is
and is not next to the square.”

What color is this?

Take a longer look…

Vagueness and Communication

Confusion is part of communication
“…if communication depends on
the construction of meaning from
cues, and if communicators do
not have direct access to others’
meanings or intentions, then what
we should expect is partial
communication. Successful
communication requires our
attention and explanation”
(Wilcox & Shaffer, 2005).

How do you suppose people make
sense of vague language?

The Toolmakers Paradigm
“Imagine…a huge compound, shaped like a wagon wheel. Each pie-shaped sector of
the wheel is an environment…at the hub of the wheel there is some machinery which
can deliver small sheets of paper from one environment to another…people in these
environments have learned how to use this machinery to exchange crude sets of
instructions with one another— instructions for making things helpful to
surviving…” (Reddy, 1993).
17%
17%
17% 17%
17%
17%

Consumer Collaboration/Communication
Model (Greene, 2011–2013)
Some consumers are each other’s family, friends, classmates, coworkers,
etc. They know each other better than the interpreter knows them.
Some consumers communicate fairly well without an interpreter— using
rudimentary language, contact language, facial expressions, gestures,
writing, speech & lipreading (or signing when not calling through VRS)
Some consumers know each other intimately and use vague language with
each other in an intimate register that leaves the interpreter out.

Consumer
“Language A”
Consumer
“Language B”
Language
A+B
Interpreter
Consumer Collaboration =
Group Membership
Insider Knowledge
Communication Strategies
Cultural/Linguistic
Fluency
Cultural/Linguistic
Fluency

Working deﬁnitions of vague language

Peirce, 1902
Quotation: “A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things
concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether, had they been
contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them as excluded or
allowed by the proposition” (emphasis added).
Translation: Something is vague when a person is uncertain whether or not it
is a certain way. Does of a certain age extend to 80, 90? What does this &
that include/exclude? How soon is soon? How many is a few? When is it past
noonish— 12:05, 12:10, 12:15, 12:20? How cute is kinda cute?

Peirce, 1902 (continued)
“By intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of
any ignorance of the interpreter, but because the speaker’s habits of
language were indeterminate; so that one day he regard the proposition as
excluding, another as admitting, those states of things. Yet this must be
understood to have reference to what might be deduced from a perfect
knowledge of his state of mind; for it is precisely because these questions
never did, or did not frequently, present themselves that his habit remained
indeterminate.” (emphasis added)

Channell, 1994
“An expression or word is vague if:
1.it can be contrasted with another word or expression which appears to
render the same proposition;
2.it is purposely and unabashedly vague;
3.its meaning arises from the ‘intrinsic uncertainty’ referred to by Peirce.”

Trappes-Lomax, 2007
“I tend to the more inclusive approach, taking as VL any purposive choice of
language designed to make the degree of accuracy, preciseness, certainty or
clarity with which a referent or situation (event, state, process) is described
less than it might have been.”

Greene, 2013
“VL is a set of linguistic forms people employ to moderate the accuracy,
certainty, clarity or speciﬁcity of a statement.”

Vague Language (VL) is not:
Unfocussed,
uninformative, sloppily
constructed, poorly
articulated, badly written,
or incomprehensible to
those who know the
speaker.
Ambiguous language like
“porcelain egg container” or
“The chicken is ready to
eat” whose “vagueness”
usually serves no social
function.
Language
you don’t
understand
because you
lack
knowledge

VL is…
Intentional
Approximate
Pragmatic
Nonspeciﬁc
Social
Polysemous

VL is universal
Found in every language studied
so far, including ASL.
Used more in speaking than in
writing.
Predominant in casual discourse
but exists in formal discourse
and “frozen” texts.
A characteristic of native ﬂuency.

Where do you see VL?
Intimate or casual conversations (street talk, slang)
Teachers talking shop (professional jargon)
Illicit or secretive exchanges (mischief, scheming)
Frozen texts such as literature, ﬁlm, music, theater
What other kinds of VL do you interpret?

Communicative Purposes of VL

Why do you suppose people use VL?

Purposes of VL
reduce social distance, imply
group membership, develop
rapport
be concise, relevant, informative,
non-pedantic
be ﬂexible, allow for alternatives,
collaborate, co-create meaning
be polite, manage tension, save
face, avoid losing face
Promote group identity, protect
individual identity
Share blame/credit with others,
avoid taking responsibility alone

Paul Grice’s Conversational Maxims
Maxim of Quantity: Be succinct.
Say as much as necessary, but
not too much.
Maxim of Quality: Be honest. Only
say what you have evidence for
and believe to be true.
Maxim of Relation: Be relevant.
Make your contribution relevant to
the interaction.
Maxim of Manner: Don’t be
ambiguous (or vague)

Violating the Maxim of Manner
“Indirect Strategies” (Brown &
Levinson, 1987 in Hoza, 2007)
Be ambiguous, be vague
Overgeneralize
Displace hearer
Be incomplete, use ellipsis

“And you know what that means!”
“Flouting the Maxims” and
“Humorous Conversational
Implicature” (Cutting, 2007)
“Well you know what he’s like.”
“…and you know what that
means.”
“…and I don’t have to tell you
what that means.”
How can we handle such
implications?

Interpreting vague language

Interpreting is not the problem
“The problem is not interpreting. It is not that English is indirect and that ASL is
direct as Humphrey and Alcorn (2001) and others would have us view it. It is
not that translation equivalents are hard to ﬁnd (indeed, they are, but that pales
in comparison to the real problem). It is not that ASL is direct and elaborative
and relies on expansion techniques while English is indirect and non-elaborative
(Lawrence 1995; Humphrey & Alcorn 2001). The problem is that our models of
interpreting simply do not do justice to the act of communicating. In trivializing
the cognitive work that is done whenever we communicate with another we fail
to prepare interpreters for the awesome and mysterious task that they perform:
speaking for another.” (Wilcox & Shaffer, 2005)

Everyone is an Interpreter:
Discuss!
1.“Speaking for another” does not minimize the “cognitive work that is done
whenever [people] communicate with [each other].” They “work” at
“interpreting” each other’s messages.
2.What kind of “work” do you do when you’re communicating with another in
your ﬁrst language? In your second language? Through an interpreter?
3.How much work should the consumers do, and how much work should the
interpreter do? Why?
4.How do I know how much work they would do if they were speaking the
same language in the same culture?

How do you suppose interpreters &
translators handle vague language?

Options for interpreting VL
Vague to explicit
Explicit to vague
Vague to vague
Ignore the vague
Ask for clariﬁcation

Found: translated
texts less vague
than source texts
(Quantitative corpus studies
by Olohan & Baker, 2000;
Razuaité, 2010)

ASL is “the backbone of Deaf Culture” (National Association of the Deaf)
“Language and culture are inseparable.” (folk wisdom)
“Language is communication; while usually verbal, language can also be visual.
… Culture, on the other hand, is a speciﬁc set of ideas, practices, customs and
beliefs which make up a functioning society as distinct. … Finally, languages
are not solely deﬁned by their developing culture.” (Robin, WikiAnswers)
“What has been written about Deaf culture (much of which is anecdotal, not
empirical) should not be confused with what has been written about ASL
(much of which is empirical, not anecdotal). (Greene, 2013)
What is the relationship between
language & culture?

Challenging Stereotypes
“Hearing are vague; Deaf are blunt.” (cf. Hoza, 2007)
“Hearing are indirect; Deaf are direct.” (cf. Mindess, 1999)
“Deaf people take a long time to get to the point.” (cf. Smith, 1996)
“ASL is not a vague language” and/or “There is no vague language in ASL.”

NAD-RID CPC illustrative behaviors
applicable to interpreting VL
“render the message faithfully by conveying the content and spirit of what is
being communicated, using language most readily understood by
consumers” (2.3).
“conduct and present themselves in an unobtrusive manner” (3.5).
“demonstrate respect for consumers” (4.0).
“facilitate consumer access and equality, and support the full interaction and
independence of consumers” (4.4).

1. How do consumers
communicate
independently? Why do
they do this?
2. How can I tell when
consumers don’t need
me? How can I get out of
the way?
3. How can I tell when
consumers need me?
How can I step back in?
4.How do I know when to
interrupt for
clariﬁcation?

Persecutor Rescuer
Victim
The Rescue Triangle

The rescuer gets to:
Save
the Victim, Be
the Hero
Meet their
own
needs
Justify
their own
anger
Keep
the Victim
dependent
on them
Feel good
about
themselves

Interpreters =
Interrupters?
“Many teachers ﬁnd the ‘lust’
to clarify and explain
irresistible” (Rowland, 2007).
Do interpreters have the lust?

Should the interpreter interrupt?
Are the consumers using VL? How can the interpreter tell?
How might the interpreter defeat the purpose of VL by clarifying?
What harm might the interpreter do by interrupting?
What good might the interpreter do by interrupting?

Drawbacks to Interrupting
Breaks ﬂow of conversation, throws off train of thought
Shifts focus from consumers to interpreter
Assumes responsibility for communication
Deprives consumers of natural consequences, self-correction, and rapport
Defeats the purpose of VL

VL Research and Literature

Vague Language
Joanna Channell, 1994

Vague Language
Explored
Joan Cutting (Ed.), 2007

It’s Not What You
Sign, It’s How
You Sign It
Politeness in American Sign
Language (Jack Hoza, 2007)

Spoken language corpora (all of which
have been studied for vague language)
Birmingham Collection of English Text
Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of
Discourse in English (CANCODE)
Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of
Academic English (CANCAD)
Cambridge and Nottingham Subset of
Corpus (CANSOC)
Collins Birmingham University International
Language Database (COBUILD)
COURTCORP (trial talk in UK courts)
Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English
(HKCSE)
Limerick Corpus of Irish English (LCIE)
Limerick and Belfast Corpus of Spoken
Academic Discourse (LIBEL)
Nottingham Health Communication Corpus
(NHCC)
Oxford Corpus of the English Language
Parallel Corpus of the Lithuanian Language

Signed language corpora (none of
which have been studied for VL)
Australian Sign Language Corpus
(Auslan Corpus)
British Sign Language Corpus
Project (BSLCP)
German Sign Language Corpus
(DGS-Korpus)
Netherlands Sign Language
Corpus (Corpus NGT)
Air Travel Information System
(ATIS)
German Sign Language (DGS)
Irish Sign Language (ISL)
South African Sign Language
(SASL)

National Center for Sign Language
and Gesture Resources (NCSLGR)
The only ASL Corpus.
Studied for vague language by one researcher— Greene, 2013.

Wrap-up and Next up
Evaluations, contact, next workshops

Contact Me at DanielGreene.com
me@danielgreene.com

A Study of Vague Language:
Intermediate and Advanced
Intermediate, 9a–noon: Participants will explore the forms of vague language
(VL) in English and ASL; participants will categorize vague forms into parts of
speech and learn how each part of speech fulﬁlls its functions in language;
participants will develop a vocabulary of VL in ASL and English.
Advanced, 1–4p: Participants will search written, spoken, and signed texts for
vague language (VL); participants will devise and perform translations for vague
texts; participants will practice interpreting vague texts both consecutively and
simultaneously; participants will analyze vague language in consumer
interactions and make ethical decisions using critical thinking, including the
NAD-RID Code of Professional Conduct and Demand-Control Schema.

Interpreting Vague Language: Beginning

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