I found the beginning of the chapter to be very insightful as far as how to pick up on the language people use in everyday conversation. I especially liked the ideas behind the word, “some”. I think that most people use “some” intentionally to make a point but to also do it farely. When you state for example, “Some of the people did not like what Tim said.” It is implying to Tim that what he said was not bad, however, some people did not like it. Now, “some” as it talks about in the chapter is sometimes purposefully ambiguous. All but one person in the room could have not liked what Tim said, but whoever is delivering the comment could be trying to protect Tims feelings so they made it sound not as bad as it really may be. This situation could just as easily be flipped around, meaning maybe only two people didn’t like what Tim said, but now it sounds worse. As you can imagine, “some” can be a dangerous word, causing someone to feel a certain negative feeling, or a positive feeling, all based on their personal experience with word and how the judge it’s ambiguous meaning.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
General Claims P1
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Hello ThatGuy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post regarding General Claim. I too posted a discussion regarding "General Claim." But yeah, I agree with you that "some" is used very ambiguously and makes no promises of more than one. I remember back in high school when I took AP Statistics I remember the teacher saying, "After taking this class I believe some of you will become statisticians." The teacher's claim was ambiguous he hopes that after the students took his course at least one will be interested enough and pursuit a career relating to statistics. But yes, some can be seen as a negative impact or positive depending on the person. Also I believe its how the person ends the sentence with "some." If its a negative ending most people would think negatively. Alright, great post! :] KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK! :D
[ellacomm]
I like how you explained how ambiguous the word “some” is. And I agree that the interpretation of the word “some” is really up to a person’s own judgment. The word is just so ambiguous that you cannot really know how much “some” is without further detail. I also like how you discussed how drastic the interpretations and uses of the word “some” are. The word could be used as an understatement to protect someone’s feelings from the truth. The word could also be used as an exaggeration and amplify something to get a person’s point across. The word “some” is a big ball of ambiguity.
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