3.1: Being Ambiguous

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Bradley H. Dowden
California State University Sacramento

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Newspaper headlines are a notorious place where the rules of grammar get bent, and we readers have to make the best of it. The following headline is about retaliation for the trade barriers between the U.S. and Japan:

More Sanctions Coming, Japan Warned

This headline is difficult to interpret. Is Japan doing the warning, or is Japan being warned? There is no way to tell; the headline has more than one reasonable interpretation. Because there is more than one interpretation, the headline is said to be ambiguous. It is the kind of ambiguity called “amphiboly.” Ambiguity is one way of the many ways writers can be imprecise.

Here is another imprecise headline that can be taken in two ways:

Air Force Considers Dropping

Some New Bombs

Are officials going to delete a weapons program, or are planes going to drop some new bombs on the enemy? Because most readers read only the headlines and not the story that goes with it, many readers will end up believing something different from what was intended by the headline writer. If you are doing the writing, you have to realize in advance that your reader will be faced with ambiguity.

In the Japan headline, ambiguity occurs in the grammar and thus in the meaning of the whole sentence; in the Air Force headline, ambiguity occurs in the meaning of a single word. In the first case, the problem is ambiguity of syntax; in the second it is ambiguity of semantics. There is also ambiguity of emphasis; you can say something very different with the sentence, “I love you,“ if you emphasize “love“ or, instead, “you.“ Ambiguity comes in three flavors. Amphiboly is ambiguity of syntax. Equivocation is ambiguity of semantics. Accent is ambiguity of emphasis. It is not usually important to be able to explicitly distinguish the kinds; the main point is to notice sources of imprecision that block effective communication.

Definition

If a word, phrase, or sentence is too imprecise (for the needs of the audience) because it has two or more distinct interpretations, it is ambiguous.

Ambiguity is a kind of imprecision; it's a way of being unclear. So, one principle of good communication is to avoid ambiguity.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

The grammar of the following headline is ambiguous. How?

Egyptians Are More Like Italians Than Canadians

Answer: The headline could mean "Egyptians are more like Italians than Canadians are" or "Egyptians are more like Italians than like Canadians."