From cbmvax!uunet!CUVMA.BITNET!LOJBAN Tue Feb 18 19:08:53 1992 Return-Path: Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (/\==/\ Smail3.1.21.1 #21.19) id ; Tue, 18 Feb 92 19:08 EST Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore 2/8/91) id AA29678; Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:55:20 EST Received: from cunixf.cc.columbia.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA22877; Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:51:17 -0500 Received: from cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu by cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA20328; Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:51:23 EST Message-Id: <9202182351.AA20328@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1) with BSMTP id 1390; Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:49:58 EST Received: by CUVMB (Mailer R2.07) id 0803; Tue, 18 Feb 92 18:49:30 EST Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1992 17:00:04 EST Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Subject: Empson's seven types of ambiguity X-To: Lojban List To: John Cowan , Eric Raymond , Eric Tiedemann Status: RO 1. We don't know which of the various things said or implied by an utterance ought to be taken as the salient point intended by the speaker. 2. When multiple meanings of a word or phrase can be fused into a single whole, we don't know which individual meaning should be given the most prominence. 3. When a word or phrase has two unconnected meanings, we don't know which meaning is intended to be most prominent, but we gain a third meaning -- the meta-meaning that a pun was intended. 4. When a word or phrase has two alternative meanings, we don't know which meaning is intended to be most prominent, but we may gain the sense of a complexity of meaning in the speaker which no single meaning could express. 5. When the speaker is changing his mind in the course of utterance, or discovering his own meaning in the course of utterance, we find a word or phrase which connects completely neither with the former meaning nor the latter meaning, but falls between them. 6. When a statement is a tautology, a contradiction, or an irrelevancy, we don't know what was meant and are forced to invent a significance. 7. When the two meanings of a statement express opposites, we discern a fundamental division in the speaker's mind causing him to hold two contrary views simultaneously. -- cowan@snark.thyrsus.com ...!uunet!cbmvax!snark!cowan e'osai ko sarji la lojban