A vague sentence is not clearly expressed and it is also referred to as imprecise. One can give a vague sentence with out expressing oneself clearly and it can be short of an obvious meaning or character. An ambiguous statement can have more than one meaning. It is open to one or more interpretations and lacks clarity of the meaning.
On my first day of my sophomore year, I asked one of my friends where one of the buildings was on campus. She laughed and said it was “over there by the Olympic statues”. Being a sophomore, I should have known, but it was a long summer and I needed some refreshing of where all the buildings were on campus! Her statement did not really help me out because there are quite a few buildings near the Olympic statues. This was a vague sentence and it forced me to pull out my planner and look at the map of the campus.
An ambiguous statement that my friend said the other day was “the guy was so sick!”. An adult in our society would assume that the guy had the flu and had a serious health related problem. But our generation now a days refers to “sick” as awesome or cool.
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ReplyDeleteI liked how you defined a vague sentence as being imprecise. That was exactly what I thought when I heard the phrase. Vague sentences like you said, doesn't express itself clearly enough for anyone to quite understand. Furthermore, your example was right on point once again. I remember when I was a freshman wondering around campus in search of my classes and I would ask other people where so and so building is. They usually replied just as you described. So many people use vague sentences now that it tends to go unnoticed, but like in your example, there are times where vague sentences can be very annoying.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first day of sophomore year! haha
I like your definition a lot. I know how it is to be told, " o it's over there." Uh... Where over there? Can you please be specific, but you'd rather sometimes not ask so you don't look dumb. I've been there before. I'm sure we all have. It's tough when you are new to a new school or city. I remember once I was in San Francisco and I was looking for a street. I got these directions, " your going to go like this (pointing right) then like this ( moving his hand left)he did this quite a bit, so I was mixed up and just said thanks. I ended up finding the place myself through my iPhone. :)
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