"Vagueness" is context-dependence: A solution to the sorites paradox

Abstract

It is argued in this paper that the vagueness of natural language predicates arises from the fact that they are learned and used always in limited contexts and hence are incompletely defined. A semantics for natural language must take this into account by making the interpretation of predicates context-dependent. It is shown that a context dependent semantics also provides the means for an account of vagueness. These notions are first developed and argued for in abstract terms and are then applied to a solution of the prototype of vagueness puzzles: the paradox of the heap.