I came across this phrase in the sentence:
勘【かん】というものは、しょちゅう経験【けいけん】していながら、どことなくつかみどころがなく、いまの科学【かがく】ではまだその正体【しょうたい】が、明らか【あきらか】にされていない。(Soumatome N1 dokkai, p45)
My best effort to translate it naturally would be:
"Although we all often experience intuition, it is an intangible phenomenon that modern science has yet to explain. "
But this is a guess with some added words. The expression can be googled as 'it is slippery in some way'.
Does anybody know this expression (or can suggest a good reference for such expressions)?
Answer
The way I interpret it is that つかみどころがない literally means something like "no places (you) can grab onto", and that it can mean "eludes grasp", "elusive", "slippery", "vague", "unclear" and similar, and that どことなく means "somehow":
勘というものは、しょっちゅう経験していながら、どことなくつかみどころがなく、いまの科学ではまだその正体が、明らかにされていない。
While being experienced quite often, the sixth sense somehow eludes our grasp. The way it physically manifests remains unclear to modern science.
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