The aim of the paper is to discuss vagueness of denominal adjectives in English in their qualitative usage. Semantic indeterminacy will be illustrated for selected denominal adjectives with the suffi x –ial, focusing on the lexeme professorial. The range of the qualitative senses of such adjectives will be exemplifi ed by sentences culled from COCA and other linguistic corpora. It will be argued that typicality effects (as discussed by Lakoff 1987) are relevant to the identifi cation (and fl exibility) of meanings of denominal adjectives.

The present study investigated the distribution and chemical properties of nerve cell bodies within the trunk of the vagus nerve in juvenile female pigs (n=4) using double-labelling immunofluorescence. The neurons appeared mostly as single cells or formed streaks of cells or small ganglia. Many of the perikarya were cholinergic (VAChT-positive; VAChT+) or adrenergic (DβH+) in nature and no SP+ or CGRP+ neurons were encountered. There were no distinct left-right differences regarding the number and chemical coding of the neuronal somata, however, these characteristics significantly varied between particular nerve segments investigated. The vagosympathetic trunks, and thoracic and abdominal segments of the vagus nerve contained on average (the numerical values represent the means for both the left and right corresponding nerve segments) 142, 236, and 111 PGP 9.5-positive neurons, respectively. Proportions of cholinergic and adrenergic neurons were as follows: 0% and 100%, 54.2% and 33.2%, and 52.8% and 35.4%, respectively. Relatively many neurons in the thoracic and abdominal segments stained also for NOS (39.2% and 39.9%, respectively). It remains to be determined whether the porcine intravagal neurons represent a developmental relic, or whether they have any specific functional significance.

The mathematical connections between microscale and macroscale models of a given piece of physical reality (compare e.g., statistical mechanics with thermodynamics) justify the following correlation thesis: a small change of value of a microscopic parameter (e.g. a change of number of molecules in a given volume of ideal gas) is correlated with a change of value of the associated macroscopic parameter (e.g. a change of temperature of ideal gas). The thesis stands in contradiction to one of the two premises in the sorites paradox, called here the condition of small change (cf. Paul Égré’s ‘tolerance principle’), according to which a small change of value of a microscopic parameter has negligible impact on a change of value of a corresponding macroscopic parameter. Acceptance of the correlation thesis results in a waiving of the condition of small change, and consequently provides a solution of the paradox. The correlation thesis coincides with Bertrand Russell’s view expressed in Vagueness (1923) where he argues that that vagueness in the macroscopic parameter is not of an ontological nature but only of an epistemological character, and is caused by looking at the physical system from a far-away perspective. This inexact picture results in an acquiescence with the inexact conditions that determine the impact of a small ontic change on its representation by the macroscopic ontic parameter. The macroscopic parameter is partly governed by its own conditions, according to the correlation thesis.