It’s great to see how people other than “interpreters” are implementing the “interpretation” of vague language for practical applications! Panos Alexopoulos, in his presentation Vagueness in Semantic Information Management, discusses how Internet engineers can design databases with search capabilities that can “interpret” what consumers mean when they say they are looking for, say, a “Big, modern restaurant.” (How many square feet is big? What year range or architectural and interior design qualifies as modern?) He discusses the challenge of developing algorithms that can translate vague search terms into specific results. Very interesting!
Blog
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Slideshows of Interpreting Vague Language Workshop Series
These are the slideshows from the series of three Interpreting Vague Language (VL) workshops I taught in July. I’m sharing these for people who are interested in vague language and how I teach it.
I recommend taking these three parts together as a Friday night, all day Saturday workshop. Please email me@danielgreene.com or call me at 623-252-5171 if you are interested in hosting. Thanks!
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The customer is the person we need, not the person who needs us
The customer is the person we need, not the person who needs us.
At first glance, this quotation seems paradoxical. In truth, we need each other. But good customer service means forgetting, for the moment, the truth that the customer needs us, and focusing instead on the truth that we need the customer. People sometimes feel embarrassed and powerless when they need something from someone. As an interpreter, I serve customers who need my help to communicate with each other. I find that when I focus on the truth that I need my customers, my attitude improves and so does my customer service. I believe that when customers feel proud and powerful instead of embarrassed and powerless, they are more able to communicate with each other and more inclined to ask for me again.
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Just because you don’t get it doesn’t mean it’s vague
“What about slang words and acronyms, aren’t they vague language?” Someone asked me this recently, and I wanted to say no right away, but I had to think about why. After thinking on it, I say no, slang words and acronyms are not vague language because they do not have inherently vague meanings; if anything, they are very specific. Vague words have inherently vague meanings– vague language is language you know, but can never be sure of. Take the word noonish– we know it means sometime around noon; we just don’t know exactly when. We also don’t know how late someone might be when they say they’ll meet you at noonish: 12:05? 12:10? What about quarter past– is that noonish anymore, or just plain late? I don’t think a dictionary, slang or otherwise, will ever tie noonish down to the hands of a clock. When people talk with each other in front of you in a language you don’t understand, they’re being cryptic, not vague. Or maybe you’re just being paranoid.
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Introductory vague language workshop for all interpreters, presented in English
This Thursday evening, July 18th, from 6–9pm UTC -7, I will be presenting the first workshop of my three-part series on interpreting vague language. This training is appropriate for interpreters of all languages, and is presented in English. The second and third parts, held on Friday, July 19th from 9am-noon and 1–4pm respectively (UTC -7) are also presented in English, and are of interest to anyone who interprets into or out of English and wants to learn about how vagueness is expressed in American Sign Language. All three of these workshops — beginning, intermediate, and advanced — present the findings of my review of vague language literature and the study of vague language I conducted on an American Sign Language corpus. These workshops take my thesis on vague language off the page and into an interactive, hands-on learning environment. You may take any or all of these workshops online via Adobe Connect and get CEUs from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Contact Amerigo Berdeski by email, aberdeski@gmail.com, or call +1-623-570-3394 to register. For more details on each workshop, download these fliers in PDF:
Daniel Greene 