A friend told you there was a "good chance" that he would come to your party. When he didn't show up you were upset. The semanti

Question

3 years ago

13

A friend told you there was a "good chance" that he would come to your party. When he didn't show up you were upset. The semanti

c problem you experienced was due to ________.
A. emotive languageB. relative languageC.equivocal wordsD. euphemismsE. semantic distracters

English

1 answer:

jekas [21] · Answer 1 · 2022-05-02T17:17:32+03:00

Answer:

The semantic problem you experienced was due to B. relative language.

Explanation:

Relative words gain their meaning by comparison. That means when someone uses relative language, what they are saying can mean something different when compared to what their interlocutor understood. For instance, when a friend says she'll call me back soon, I'll interpret the word "soon" according to my own standards. To me, "soon" means in a few minutes, but to her it may mean in a couple of hours.

In the situation described in the passage, the two friends had different comprehensions of what "good chance" meant when compared to each other. That is why one of them was disappointed when the other didn't show up. For that friend, "good chance" mean a high probability, while for the other it didn't.