Vagueness
In “What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness,” Clark Wheldon, writing for City Journal, discusses the use of vague filler words–”like,” “you know,” “sort of”–which function as a way to avoid saying anything concrete or specific:
“I recently watched a television program in which a woman described a baby squirrel that she had found in her yard. “And he was like, you know, ‘Helloooo, what are you looking at?’ and stuff, and I’m like, you know, ‘Can I, like, pick you up?,’ and he goes, like, ‘Brrrp brrrp brrrp,’ and I’m like, you know, ‘Whoa, that is so wow!’ ” She rambled on, speaking in self-quotations, sound effects, and other vocabulary substitutes, punctuating her sentences with facial tics and lateral eye shifts. All the while, however, she never said anything specific about her encounter with the squirrel.”
It’s a useful reminder of the way in which we sometimes hide behind words, not just in spoken English, but in our writing as well, using language to avoid saying anything at all.
