New theory on ambiguity in language

[kestrell]

Kes: I don't think I agree that the intention of language is always to communicate information clearly, considering how much poetry, plays, songs, and other works created by wordsmiths tend to play with and exploit ambiguity in language; it seems to me that ambiguity must, to some degree, be intentionally cultivated, as opposed to an arbitrary circumstance.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/ambiguity-in-language-0119.html

Comments

[capri0mni]

I continue to believe that humans survive through sharing what we hope for, and fear, and dream about, rather than simply sharing information.

And sharing our hopes, fears and dreams is best done through stories, not spreadsheets.

And stories are most powerful when the words that make them have double meanings. That's where irony, and metaphor and analogies come from.

[kestrell]

And mystery! Let us not forget mystery. I offer up the first line from one of my favorite poems:
"What if a much of a which of a wind..."

What, precisely, is a "much of a which of a wind"? I don't know know for certain, but it might also be a much of a witch of a wind, which always makes me think of those small mischievous breezes which come along in October, lifting dired brown leaves intot he air like so many revenant sparrows, before disappearing as suddenly as they came so that the life goes right out of them and they fall tot he ground, just dried-up leaves once more.
Ambiguity is what is spoken and unspoken simultaneously.
Oh, and riddles: riddles entirely rely on ambiguity.

[capri0mni]

just so. human minds work by finding connections and creating patterns. one-for-one literal meaning does nothing for that goal, and, in fact, subtracts from it.

Language exists because of ambiguity, not in spite of it.

(typed with one arm under a sleeping cat -- until just now).