Non-maximality and vagueness: Revisiting the plural Sorites paradox

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Using Sorites paradoxes to diagnose vagueness, non-maximal uses of English and German definite plurals come out as vague, but only in some contexts. Vague plurals have been analyzed in the ‘tolerant/classical/strict’ (TCS) framework (Burnett 2017), but it is an open question which properties of the context license vagueness. I submit that a plural sentence φ is vague only if the QUD Q partitions the logical space so finely that the interpretation of φ wrt. Q differs only negligibly from its interpretation wrt. certain subquestions of Q. The proposal combines the TCS approach with a QUD-based view of non-maximality (Malamud 2012, Križ 2015, Križ & Spector 2021), which has independent empirical advantages. YouTube talk video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2G3KSzyH1k

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