Source: Paint 3D
Do we really communicate effectively? Is what we say clear to the other party? At the end of the day, can communication be said to have taken place?
In communication, there is often ambiguity. We shall take a look at semantic or lexical ambiguity and syntactic or structural ambiguity. Let us consider the following:
Semantic ambiguity
Semantic ambiguity occurs where there are two or more possible meanings within a single word.
An example is, “Stress makes pupils weak.”
It is unclear whether reference is being made to the pupils of eyes, to school children or to lawyers who are carrying out their pupillage.
The ambiguity may be clarified through the context in which the statement is being made.
Syntactic ambiguity
Syntactic ambiguity occurs where there are two or more possible meanings in a single sentence or a sequence of words.
An example is, “She saw a snail walking in the garden.”
It is not clear whether she saw a snail which was walking in the garden or whether she saw a snail while she was walking in the garden. It is obvious that snails crawl and do not walk.
To cure the ambiguity, the sentence may be reformulated, with the aid of punctuation, as follows:
“Walking in the garden, she saw a snail.”
Quote
“In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, philosopher and poet
(25th May, 1803 – 27th April, 1882)
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