"roughly speaking" versus "roughly spoken"

[Jaakov]

Dear all:

In logics one has to write sentences similar to the following ones
(where X and Y are some nominal phrases):

- One can view X, roughly speaking, as an abstraction of Y.
- One can view X, roughly spoken, as an abstraction of Y.

What is the difference? Does one alternative sound better than another one?

And, by the way, is it possible to substitute "roughly speaking" or
"roughly spoken" by the following phrases:
- cursorily speaking,
- cursorily spoken,
- simply put,
- to put it simply?

Thanks in advance,

Jaakov.

[Daniel James]

In article <k0svb3$q7d$1...@speranza.aioe.org>, Jaakov wrote:
> In logics one has to write sentences similar to the following ones
> (where X and Y are some nominal phrases):
>
> - One can view X, roughly speaking, as an abstraction of Y.
> - One can view X, roughly spoken, as an abstraction of Y.
>
> What is the difference? Does one alternative sound better than
> another one?

There's an idiomatic difference between "roughly speaking" and "roughly
spoken" that makes the second of these look wrong.

"Roughly speaking" is used to mean "approximately". On might say
something like:

The same number of people, roughly speaking, use this train
every day.

The actual number might be 357 on one day, 328 the next, and 362 the day
after ... but every day it's somewhere in the mid 300s so "roughly
speaking" the same.

"Roughly spoken" is used to describe a person's manner of speaking. If
something is said in a terse or gruff manner -- or perhaps
ungrammatically or sprinkled with swear words -- then it may be
described as roughly spoken. A person who habitually speaks in this
manner might be described as "rough-spoken".

Cheers,
Daniel.

[Jaakov]

Thank you for the explanations!
Jaakov.