When you think about it, the weird thing isn't so much that all human 
languages are inherantly vague and ambiguous. The weird thing is that 
this is almost never a problem. In the overwhelming majority of cases, 
everybody still knows *exactly* what you mean, even though strictly 
speaking most sentences could have several possible meanings.

Even more weirdly, people have invented more precise ways of saying 
things (e.g., technical terms with exact and unambiguous meanings), and 
yet humans find it *harder* to communicate this way, not easier. You 
would have thought being able to say what you mean precisely would be 
easier, but it clearly isn't. Again, you would have thought 
understanding a sentence with only a single possible meaning would be 
way easier. But it isn't.

This leaves me wondering... how the **** does the human mind actually 
work anyway?!

If you try to program a computer, precise language is much easier to 
handle than ambiguous stuff. Which makes complete sense. But humans, 
apparently, function the opposite way round. Go figure!

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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