ABSTRACT
Vagueness is a challenge to the theory of language. On the one hand there is little or no agreement on such elementary matters as the vehicle and domain of vagueness, the opposite of vagueness, the relations among vagueness, ambiguity, and generality – and still others. On the other hand, large theses have been propounded concerning the methodological, logical, and ontological status of vagueness, for example, that vagueness is a universal characteristic of descriptive terms, that it is in fundamental conflict with standard logic, that it shows some basic limitation of the human mind or derives from an ineradicable blur in nature. Vagueness has, moreover, been associated with a variety of forms of indeterminacy, and concomitant interpretations have often harbored both surface difficulties and deep philosophical troubles.
