The rationality of round interpretation

Authors
Publication date 2011
Host editors
  • R. Nouwen
  • R. van Rooij
  • U. Sauerland
  • H.-C. Schmitz
Book title Vagueness in Communication
Book subtitle International Workshop, ViC 2009, held as part of ESSLLI 2009, Bordeaux, France, July 20-24, 2009 : revised selected papers
ISBN
  • 9783642184451
ISBN (electronic)
  • 9783642184468
Series Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Event VIC 2009, held as part of ESSLLI 2009
Pages (from-to) 37-50
Publisher Heidelberg: Springer
Organisations
  • Interfacultary Research - Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC)
Abstract Expanding on a point made by Krifka [6, p.7-8], we show that the fact that a round number has been used significantly increases the posterior probability that that number was intended as an approximation. This increase should typically be enough to make assuming that an approximation was indeed intended a rational choice, and thereby helps explain why round numbers are often seen as simply having an approximate meaning. Generalization into non-number words is also discussed, resulting in a possible origin of (some) vagueness.
Document type Conference contribution
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18446-8_3
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