| Uncertainty spreads through our lives so thoroughly that it dominates our language. 模糊现象已经无孔不入地扩展到我们生活的各个方面，以致模糊现象也扩展到了我们的语言当中。 Our everyday speech is made up in large part of words like probably, many, soon, great, little. 我们的日常讲话很大一部分是由"也许"、" 好多"、"不久"、"大量"、"很少"这类词汇所构成的。 What do these words mean? "Atomic war," declared a recent editorial in the London Times, "is likely to destroy forever the nation that wages it." 这些词汇意味着什么？英国伦敦《泰晤士报》在最近的一篇社论中说"原子战争很可能会永久性地毁灭了进行原子战的国家"。 How exactly are we to understand the word likely? Lacking any standard for estimating the probability, we are left with the judgment of the editorial writer. 我们怎样才能确切地理解"很可能"这个词汇？因为要估计某事的可能性，没有什么标准可依据，我们只能由着社论的作者去估计判断了 Such verbal imprecision is not necessarily to be criticised. 对这种用词不够精确的模糊语言，倒不一定要加以批评责备。 Indeed, it has a value just because it allows us to express judgments when a precise quantitative statement is out of the question. 。其实，这种模糊语言有它一定的使用价值，因为当我们不能用精确的数量来叙述时，这种模糊语言使我们能表达出对各种事物的判断。 |
