VAGUENESS IN LANGUAGE: THE IGBO LANGUAGE EXAMPLE

Abstract

Vagueness is one of the observed phenomena in many languages of the world which appears to be instantiated in nearly all lexical categories. It occurs when the boundaries of a word's meaning are not well defined. Vagueness is sometimes confused with other linguistic phenomena such as generality, ambiguity and open texture. This paper seeks to examine the nature of this phenomena in the Igbo language. The work studies vagueness in Igbo in general and on vague lexical categories especially. The aim of the study is to investigate the nature and sources of vagueness in the language. To arrive at the objective, the work adopts a descriptive approach in defining vagueness and contrasting it with other linguistic phenomena, the features of vagueness are also highlighted. The data used in the study was collected through the researchers day to day interaction with Igbo speakers and the researcher's intuitive knowledge of the language. The work reveals that vagueness is an inevitable linguistic feature and an essential property of natural language with examples from Igbo language.