We explain what ambiguity is, for what reasons it can occur in language and in which cases it can be a desirable trait or not.
Ambiguity prevents a single message from being conveyed clearly.What is ambiguity?
When we talk about ambiguity or it is said that something is ambiguous, it means that its correct meaning, its original intention or its purpose are not clear, and it can correspond to one or more possibilities at the same time. With this we can refer to an endless number of references, be it the meaning of a writing, the intention behind a comment, the behaviour of a person or any other form of information.
The words ambiguity and ambiguous come from Latin ambiguus, made up of the prefix amb- ("On both sides") and the verb agere ("Carry out", "act"). Thus, from their origins, these words refer to that which has two possible meanings, that is, that figuratively acts on two fronts or moves in two possible directions.
Hence, ambiguity is an undesirable trait when communicating in an undesirable way. effective, since it allows the misinterpretation of the message by the receiver, who could mistake it for another possible message.An ambiguous instruction, for example, will be difficult to carry out, since the recipient must either request clarification or run the risk of executing it without really knowing what is expected of him.
At the linguistic level, ambiguity can occur for various reasons, such as:
Ambiguity syntactic, when the order of the words it is unclear as to what it refers to. For example, the sentence "the turkey is ready to eat" may refer to the turkey being cooked and ready to be eaten, or there is a live turkey that is ready to be fed. This ambiguity can be removed by the context in which the sentence is stated.
Semantic ambiguity, when the specific meaning of a word is not too clear and leads to confusion. This can occur in two different cases:
- Homonymy, when two words are the same but represent different things. For example: in the prayer "Miguel is waiting for us in a bank" they may be waiting for us in a bank in a square, or in a bank.
- Homophony, when two words sound the same but are spelled differently, and can be confusing in the language spoken. For example: when we hear the sentence "On the other side there are many fences" we could confuse it with "On the other side there are many berries", and not know if we refer to advertisements or fruit trees.
In other forms of communication, on the other hand, ambiguity can be a desired trait, since it allows us to hint, show or suggest something, without stating it outright, leaving the understanding of the “true” message delivered to the recipient's ability.
This occurs in situations such as seduction, in which it is sought to build a language of complicity between future lovers, or also in literary language, whose ambiguity can be at the same time an enormous wealth of meanings, as in the case of the poetry.