Ambiguity is the quality or state of what is ambiguous, that is, what can have more than one sense or meaning. The function of ambiguity is to suggest different meanings for the same message.
Also called amphibology, ambiguity is a figure of speech and can be used as a stylistic device. But it can also be a language addiction, which results from poor sentence construction or imprecise use of a word. In this case, it compromises the meaning of the statement.
Examples:
"Maria ate a candy and her sister too." (Unambiguously: "Maria ate a candy, and her sister too").
"They killed my uncle's pig." (Unambiguously: "They killed my uncle's pig").
"The guard detained the suspect at his house." (Whose house: the guard or the suspect?).
"Peter told his friend that he had arrived." (Who had arrived? Peter or the friend?).
"John went to the restaurant with his sister." (Is she John's sister or the sister of the person you're talking to?).
Ambiguity can present the feeling of indecision, hesitation, vagueness, uncertainty and indeterminacy.
Examples:
“I don't know if I like the cold or the heat”.
“I don't know if I'm going or staying”.
Ambiguity can be in words, phrases, expressions or complete sentences. It is quite applicable in literary, poetic or humorous texts, but should be avoided in scientific or journalistic texts, for example.
see the Meaning of Ambiguous.
Lexical and Structural Ambiguity
An ambiguous expression or text can take two forms: structural ambiguity and lexical ambiguity.
THE structural it causes ambiguity because of the position of words in an utterance, generating a misunderstanding of its meaning.
Example: "The cell phone has become a great ally of man, but this one does not always perform all his tasks".
The words “this” and “yours” can refer to both the cell phone and the man, making it difficult to directly interpret the sentence and causing ambiguity.
THE lexical ambiguity it is when a given word takes on two or more meanings, as with polysemy, for example.
Example: “The boy asked the waiter for a dish”.
In the example above, the word “dish” can refer to the object where the food is placed or to a type of meal.
Ambiguity and Polysemy
The fact that a word has many meanings is also called polysemy.
The word “sail”, for example, can refer to a boat sail, wax candle (which serves to light), or it can be the conjugation of the verb velar, which means “to be vigilant”.
Know more:
- Definition of Polysemy
- 6 Examples of Ambiguity