Vague language is a choice of narrative in which the degree of accuracy, certainty, or clarity in a description of a situation or thing is less than it may be possible.Hugh Trappes-Lomax, "Vague language as a means of self-protective avoidance: Tension management in conference talks", In: Vague Language Explored
A thorough treatment of vague language, including placeholder words, was provided by Joanna Channell.Joanna Channell, Vague Language, 1994 readable in the Internet Archive In particular, she demonstrates that dictionaries often provide inadequate definitions and explanations of vague lexical items.Vague language book review
See also Hedge (linguistics) References
Literature Vague Language Explored, 2007 Communicating through Vague Language: A Comparative Study of L1 and L2 Speakers, 2016 Vagueness, Ambiguity, and All the Rest: Linguistic and pragmatic approaches, 2024