In the story, an alien comes to Earth with a spaceship full of fantastic alien technology. He appears to have come with no purpose other than to help our species thrive, as indicated by the title of an alien book that he carries, with the title To Serve Man. To Serve Man is based on a semantic ambiguity.
But it also has a narrative ambiguity! Did the alien successfully cook humankind? Was some kind of resistance organized? This popular joke is a clear example of a pun using the polysemous word fast. This was an actual newspaper headline, referring to a safety controversy at a mine. The author certainly meant that the miners were refusing to work after a death at the mine. Newspaper headlines are famous for this kind of ambiguity because they normally leave out the punctuation and details that might prevent the ambiguity.
You can find a list of funny syntactically ambiguous headlines here. A double entendre is a deliberate use of semantic ambiguity. By including a polysemic word or phrase, the speaker gives the sentence two possible meanings. But after the war, it turned out that this phrase had never been defined; it was left ambiguous.
So, Faisal was given a territory far smaller than what he expected. List of Terms Action. Ad Hominem. Alter Ego. APA Citation. Ambiguity in law is either patent or latent ambiguity—the former being ambiguity that is readily apparent to anyone perusing the legal document in question, and the latter meaning that the way the document is worded appears clear but, on further examination, could apply equally to two different subject matters or entities.
After discussing whether they should split up, venture off together somewhere new, or return again the next day to continue their endless waiting for the titular Mr.
Godot, they share this final exchange:. This ambiguous closing allows the audience to imagine that the pair might stop waiting for Godot or return the next day. They may not even leave the tree and instead sleep there that night. Goodreads has a great list of the best books with morally ambiguous characters. David G. Brooks of the University of Sydney published an excellent exploration of ambiguity and close reading in literature. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy published a wonderful—and very in-depth— article on ambiguity.
Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples. Ambiguity Definition. Lexical vs. Semantic Ambiguity. Ambiguity as a Narrative Device.
Character Ambiguity. Ambiguity Outside of Literature. Examples of Ambiguity in Literature. Further Resources on Ambiguity. In speech and writing, however, ambiguity can be a useful tool.
In your speech, you might want to use ambiguity to make your audience consider things for themselves. Within that story arc lies the opportunity to be a bit ambiguous while setting the stage for the conclusion. Hopefully, these will get the wheels turning so you can incorporate a little bit into your everyday speech and writing. Each of these general examples of ambiguity can carry double meanings:. When found in literature, ambiguity is sure to be intentional, forcing the reader to contemplate a central idea.
I ran all the way to the main gate, and then I waited a second till I got my breath. I have no wind, if you want to know the truth. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last year. Or is it about the loss of a loved one? Why was "Rose" capitalized? Her right arm lay in the cushioned parapet before her. She raised her hand, and made a light, quick movement toward the right. No one but her lover saw her. Every eye but his was fixed on the man in the arena.
He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, every eye was fixed immovable upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it. Stockton ends this story with a ton of ambiguity. The princess told him to choose the door to the right, and he did. But, what is her wish? That he faces a tiger or another lover?
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