Like, you know...?

We often take language for granted. Sharing a building with the Linguistics Department here and the occasional awkward lost in translation moment has made me appreciate the importance of communication to society. Grown-up economists have considered it too: Ariel Rubinstein has a book entitled 'Language and Economics', which you can download for free from his rather unique website.

Bart Lipman is a theorist in Boston University. In 2002 he wrote a paper on language and economics which memorably opened with "I find myself in the rather awkward position of trying to survey a literature which (as I will feel compelled to define it) almost doesn't exist." He has continued the fine tradition with a 2009 working paper:

Why is language vague?

Barton L. Lipman

Department of Economics

Boston University

Current Draft: November 2009

Abstract: I don't know.

Funny abstract aside, the conclusion may strike a chord with this blog's readership:

"Put differently, the vastness of even very simple sets of options suggests it is ludicrous to think a real person would have well defined ideas, much less well behaved preferences ... In short, it is not that people have a precise view of the world but communicate it vaguely; instead, they have a vague view of the world."

(H/T: Jeff Smith)

Addendum: this Father Ted clip is apt.