Ambiguity
A
word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one
meaning.Ambiguity can have both
lexical
and a structural basis, as with sentences like 'I left her behind for you' and
'He saw her duck'.
Ambiguous
words or statements lead to vagueness and confusion, and shape the basis for
instances of unintentional humor.
For instance, it is ambiguous to say “I rode a black horse in red pajamas,”
because it may lead us to think the horse was wearing red pajamas. The sentence
becomes clear when it is restructured “Wearing red pajamas, I rode a black
horse.”
Similarly, same words with different meanings can
cause ambiguity e.g. “John took off his trousers by the bank.” It is funny if
we confuse one meaning of “bank” which is a building, to another meaning, being
“an edge of a river”. Context usually resolves any ambiguity in such cases.
1.
Types of ambiguity
There
are two types of ambiguity, lexical and structural. Lexical
ambiguity is by far the more common. Everyday examples include nouns like
'chip', 'pen' and 'suit', verbs like 'call', 'draw' and 'run', and adjectives
like 'deep', 'dry' and 'hard'. There are various tests for ambiguity. One test
is having two unrelated antonyms, as with 'hard', which has both 'soft' and
'easy' as opposites. Another is the conjunction reduction test. Consider the
sentence, 'The tailor pressed one suit in his shop and one in the municipal
court'. Evidence that the word 'suit' (not to mention 'press') is ambiguous is
provided by the anomaly of the 'crossed interpretation' of the sentence, on
which 'suit' is used to refer to an article of clothing and 'one' to a legal
action.
2. Ambiguity contrasted
It
is a platitude that what your words convey 'depends on what you mean'. This
suggests that one can mean different things by what one says, but it says
nothing about the variety of ways in which this is possible. Semantic ambiguity
is one such way, but there are others: homonymy (mentioned above), vagueness,
relativity, indexicality, nonliterality, indirection and inexplicitness. All
these other phenomena illustrate something distinct from multiplicity of
linguistic meaning.
3. Philosophical relevance
Philosophical
distinctions can be obscured by unnoticed ambiguities. So it is important to
identify terms that do doubtle duty. For example, there is a kind of ambiguity,
often described as the 'act/object' or the 'process/product' ambiguity,
exhibited by everyday terms like 'building', 'shot' and 'writing'. Confusions
in philosophy of language and mind can result from overlooking this ambiguity
in terms like 'inference', 'statement' and 'thought'. Another common
philosophical ambiguity is the type/token distinction. Everyday terms like
'animal', 'book' and 'car' apply both to types and to instances (tokens) of
those types. The same is true of linguistic terms like 'sentence', 'word' and
'letter' and to philosophically important terms like 'concept', 'event' and
'mental state' (see TYPE/TOKEN DISTINCTION).
Common
Ambiguity Examples
Below
are some common examples of ambiguity:
- A good life depends on a liver – Liver may be an organ or simply a living person.
- Foreigners are hunting dogs – It is unclear whether dogs were being hunted or foreigners are being spoken of as dogs.
- Each of us saw her duck – It is not clear whether the word “duck” refers to an action of ducking or a duck that is a bird.
- The passerby helps dog bite victim – Is the passerby helping a dog bite someone? Or is he helping a person bitten by a dog? It’s not clear.
Function of Ambiguity
Ambiguity in literature serves the purpose of
lending a deeper meaning to a literary work. By introducing ambiguity in their
works, writers give liberty to the readers to use their imagination to explore
meanings. This active participation of the readers involves them in the prose or poetry they read.
Conclution
:
Ambiguity
is A word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one
meaning.Ambiguity can have both a lexical and a structural basis, as with
sentences like 'I left her behind for you' and 'He saw her duck'.
3
Part of Ambiguity :
1. Types of ambiguity
2. Ambiguity contrasted
3. Philosophical relevance
Below
are some common examples of ambiguity:
- A good life depends on a liver – Liver may be an organ or simply a living person.
- Foreigners are hunting dogs – It is unclear whether dogs were being hunted or foreigners are being spoken of as dogs.
Function of Ambiguity
Ambiguity in literature serves the purpose of
lending a deeper meaning to a literary work.
References :
1. http://literarydevices.net/ambiguity/
2. http://online.sfsu.edu/kbach/ambguity.html
3. http://www.yourdictionary.com/ambiguity
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