2024/04/28 by Paul Égré, Benjamin Spector, Égré, Paul +1
Computer Science · #91A86 #Advanced Algebra and Logic #Computation and Language (cs.CL) #Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #I.2.7 #Information Theory (cs.IT)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.18154
openalex publication_date 2024/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Why is language vague? Vagueness may be explained and rationalized if it can be shown that vague language is more useful to speaker and hearer than precise language. In a well-known paper, Lipman proposes a game-theoretic account of vagueness in terms of mixed strategy that leads to a puzzle: vagueness cannot be strictly better than precision at equilibrium. More recently, Égré, Spector, Mortier and Verheyen have put forward a Bayesian account of vagueness establishing that using vague words can be strictly more informative than using precise words. This paper proposes to compare both results and to explain why they are not in contradiction. Lipman's definition of vagueness relies exclusively on a property of signaling strategies, without making any assumptions about the lexicon, whereas Égré et al.'s involves a layer of semantic content. We argue that the semantic account of vagueness is needed, and more adequate and explanatory of vagueness.