Introduction

Philosophical and other studies have often been guided by an ideal conception of language as utterly precise, determinate, purely literal and perfectly univocal. Theorists have, of course, recognized that actual languages fall far short of such an ideal conception. They have, however, hoped eventually to illumine the actual features and operations of language by initial consideration of simplified structures. Such idealization is certainly a legitimate strategy of inquiry, but its explanatory success in any given case depends on clear understanding of the simplified structure itself, as well as the availability of principled judgments as to actual deviations from it. ¹ On both counts, the idealization of language mentioned above has been far from satisfactory : It has not been evident how exactly to interpret such concepts as precision, determinacy, univocality, and literalness, nor have we been offered an adequate understanding of how expressions may fall short of their perfect embodiment.