意义的疏略性导致了它的简约性。从负面视角来看，这种简约性备受指责，早已有之，因此才使约翰逊博士(Samuel Johnson，1709-1784）用了数百字、以极尽精微之能事来解释一个小词“net”（网）。时至今日，辞典编纂家受到的压力并没有减轻。下面是《简明牛津词典》对“狼”这个词的解释：
Wolf: Erect-eared straight-tailed harsh-furred tawny-grey wild gregarious carnivorous quadruped allied to dog preying on sheep etc. or combining in packs to hunt larger animals.
(Concise Oxford Dictionary)
“Wild”（野生动物）本身就是一个概括词，即便前面加上四组复合限制定语（“竖耳”、“直尾”、“粗毛”、“褐黄”），语义仍然简约疏略。正因为如此，前期维根斯坦（专注于语言的数理逻辑化时期）才说意义简约疏落是日常语言不可救药的“痼疾”(inveteracy)！经历了二十年的思考，特别是在他辞去教职静居在爱尔兰乡村以后，才终于认识到了日常语言的魅力——西方语言学家和语言哲学家将维氏这种“返朴归真”称之为“维根斯坦的回归”。维根斯坦在他晚年的作品《哲学研究》中写道：
Here it is difficult as it were to keep our heads up—to see that we must stick to the subjects of our every-day thinking, and not go astray and imagine that we have to describe extreme subtleties, which in turn we are after all quite unable to describe with the means at our disposal. We feel as if we had to repair a torn spider's web with our fingers.
The more narrowly we examine actual language, the sharper becomes the conflict between it and our requirement. (For the crystalline purity of logic was, of course, not a result of investigation : it was a requirement.) The conflict becomes intolerable; the requirement is now in danger of becoming empty. We have got on to slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that, we are unable to walk. We want to walk: so we need friction. Back to the rough ground!
自然语言是“粗糙的”，但却是无比深厚和坚实的；它是含混的、简约的，却是无比丰富多彩的。正因为这样，不少西方有见地的语言哲学家指出了意义的另一个重要的特点——对译学的意义理论来说，也是一个极其重要的特点：“不确定性”(indeterminacy)。
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