Is ‘vague’ vague? Aldrich (1937: 94) didn’t think so. Austin (1962: 126) did, and Sorensen (1985) offered a proof. Deas (1989) rejected the proof, but in (2003) I sided with Sorensen. Now Hull (2005) replies on behalf of Deas. Why so much fuss about a single word? One reason, I think, is that a lot depends on how we settle the question. For example, Frege (1903: §56) famously remarked that logi...

This paper describes the INEX 2003 participation of the Language & Inference Technology group of the University of Amsterdam. We participated in all three of the tasks, content-only, strict contentand-structure and vague content-and-structure.

Topological predicates are an important element of database systems that allow manipulation of spatial data. Based on the necessity for such systems to handle uncertainty, we introduce a general mechanism that identifies vague topological predicates. This definition forms part of a formal data model referred to as VASA (Vague Spatial Algebra), in which the data types vague regions, vague lines,...

This paper investigates the implications for contracting problems with adverse selection of assuming a more general information structure than usual. The paper applies a choice theoretic framework introduced in Olszewski (2007) and Ahn (2008) a special case of the vague environments in Vierø (2009a) to a canonical principal-agent model with hidden information. The vague environment reflects tha...

Many geographical applications deal with objects in space that cannot be adequately described by determinate, crisp spatial concepts because of their intrinsically indeterminate and vague nature. Geographical information systems and spatial database systems are currently unable to cope with this kind of data. To support the efficient representation, querying, and manipulation of vague spatial d...

In this paper, the study of vague structures of Γ-semigroups is initiated by introducing the concepts of vague subsemigroup, vague bi-ideal and vague (1, 2)-ideal in a Γ-semigroup and some fundamental results are obtained. Then the concept of vague weakly completely prime ideals in Γ-semigroups has been introduced and studied directly and via operator semigroups

The notion of positive implicative vague ideals in BCKalgebras is introduced. A relation between a vague ideal and a positive implicative vague ideal is discussed. Characterizations of a positive implicative vague ideal are considered. 2010 AMS Classification: 06F35, 03G25, 03E72

Naturally occurring phenomena in space often (if not always) cannot be precisely defined because of the intrinsic uncertainty of their features. The location of animal refuges might not be precisely known, and the path of rivers might be uncertain due to water volume fluctuations and changing land characteristics. The extension of lakes can also change and thus have uncertain areas. All these a...

Vague predicates such as heap, tall, bald, near to, nicer than, etc. are characterized by their Sorites susceptibility and the existence of borderline cases. In attempting to develop a general theory, diverse vague predicates are often analyzed in rather broad natural language settings. Because this has proven to be rather difficult, the phenomenon of vagueness is studied here in a narrower and...