Monday, November 2, 2009

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is:
- an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context
- unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning

(apparently)

This is a quote from the book I have to read for my linguistics class (The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker) :
"Consider the sonh line Mary had a little lamb. Unambiguous? Image that the second line was : With mint sauce. Or: And the doctors were surprised. Or: The tramp!

Other examples of ambiguity:
Ingres enjoyed painting his models nude.
My son few another foot.
Vegetarians don't know what how good meat tastes.
I saw the man with the binoculars.
Mano met a woman with a wooden leg named Aminah.
The lady hit the man with an umbrella.
He gave her cat food.

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