Ambiguity

– Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend; inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

 – A cop just knocked on my door and told me that my dogs were chasing people on bikes. My dogs don’t even own bikes.

These are two examples of ambiguity. Ambiguity is when a word, phrase or sentence can mean two or more things.

In writing, there are two types of ambiguity: lexical (or semantic) ambiguity, when a word can mean more than one thing; and structural (or syntactic) ambiguity, when the placement of a word can give it more than one meaning.

Lexical ambiguity – word meaning

Eg – We saw her duck (duck = bird; lower her head); They can fish (can = are able to; put in tins).

Lexical ambiguity is often used in comedy, such as in the famous Groucho Marx quote, ‘Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend; inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.’ (‘Outside of’ = besides; on the exterior of.)

Structural ambiguity – word placement

Eg – The chicken is ready to eat (is the meal ready, or is the chicken hungry?); The burglar robbed the woman with a knife (was the burglar or the woman holding the knife?); He ate the biscuits on the sofa (was he or were the biscuits on the sofa?).

Structural ambiguity is also used in comedy – eg, A cop just knocked on my door and told me that my dogs were chasing people on bikes. My dogs don’t even own bikes.

News headlines are often structurally ambiguous – eg, Kids make nutritious snacks, Grandmother of eight makes hole in one, Dr Ruth to talk about sex with newspaper editors.

Ambiguity can also be caused by incorrect punctuation – eg, Eats, shoots and leaves/Eats shoots and leaves; Let’s eat, Grandma/Let’s eat Grandma; I love cooking, my family and my dog/I love cooking my family and my dog.

While ambiguity can be useful in certain types of writing, often it serves only to confuse readers. Context is important when avoiding ambiguity – choose your words and their placement carefully, and make sure your punctuation is correct.

Tracey Hawthorne, Scout’s copy editor, is a writer and editor with more than 35 years of editorial experience. In the editing realm, she has edited upwards of 50 books, copy-edited for many major South African magazine titles, and worked as a subeditor for newspapers, large corporates, marketing companies and private clients.