A vague sentence is a sentence that could be understood in several different ways and theres no way of finding out what the sentence truly means until the speaker clarifies what the sentence actually means. An ambiguous sentence is a sentence that either has two or very few ways to be understood.
My example of a vague sentence comes from watching television the other day and a perosn said that "Many young people like President Obama." This a definitely a vage sentence because people can ask so many questions about it. How young are the "young" people? High Students? College Students? People in their late 20's and 30's? Do the young people like him for his policies or just because he seems like a cool guy? How many young people across the country? Therefore this sentences is a vague sentence because there are many ways to understand it.
My example of a ambigous statement is hearing two people talk at the grocery store. Behind me was a mother and her daughter, the mother told her daughter that "the meeting would be at 8 o clock tomorrow."
When I heard that sentence, I wondered, 8:00am or 8:00 pm? This is a ambiguous sentence because there are only two ways of understanding it.
Rossi-
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your post! It was really helpful. I really liked how you gave two examples as opposed to just giving one; it made it a lot clearer and made it easy for me to understand. I also liked how you chose statements that were universal and easy to understand the differences and the similarities between the two topics that you have chosen to blog about. I agree with you about your vague statement; the word “young people” is extremely vague and really needs to be clarified because I know a few people who would disagree with that statement. Thanks for all of your help!
Hi Rossi! :)
ReplyDeleteYour post is super helpful! I like your example of the ambiguous statement because it is very easy to relate to; I'm sure almost anyone has overheard a conversation in which a statement is ambiguous, especially pertaining to the time.
I also really liked your example of the vague statement because it IS true! Through personal experience I've heard a large amount of "young" people express their love for President Obama but cannot explain why. There are so many amazing reasons to love Obama and what he has done for our country, but for what specifically?
Thank you for your post! :)