{"id":4978,"date":"2017-12-05T14:32:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T14:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/12\/05\/ambiguity-vagueness-generality-disambiguation-2\/"},"modified":"2017-12-05T14:32:04","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T14:32:04","slug":"ambiguity-vagueness-generality-disambiguation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/12\/05\/ambiguity-vagueness-generality-disambiguation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambiguity, Vagueness, Generality, Disambiguation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ambiguity.<\/em> A property of linguistic expressions, primarily. An expression is ambiguous if it has two or more distinct meanings. Back in the day a guy asked me, "Where's your head, man?" I thought he was inquiring into my psychological state, but he merely needed to relieve himself. 'Head' is ambiguous. In its nautical use it refers to a toilet. Ambiguity is either syntactic or semantic. The example lately offered is semantic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amphiboly<\/em>. An amphiboly is a syntactic ambiguity. Scope ambiguity is one subspecies. Consider 'Whatever happens must happen.' On an innocuous parsing with the modal operator operating on the whole sentence, it comes out a trivial logical truth:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Necessarily, whatever happens, happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But if the modal operator is imported into the sentence and attached to the consequent of the conditional, we get a probably false piece of fatalist metaphysics:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Whatever happens, necessarily happens.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Equivocation<\/em>. An equivocation is a semantic ambiguity.  Consider this abortion argument:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The fetus is a part of a woman's body.<\/span>
A woman has the right to do whatever she wants with any part of her body.<\/span>
Therefore<\/span>
A woman has the right to do whatever she wants with the fetus, including having it killed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is 'part' being used in the same sense in the first and second premises? If not, the argument succumbs to the fallacy of equivocation. I would say that the argument does so succumb. For the minor to be uncontroversially true, the term 'part' must be given a narrow reading that exclude the fetus. But for the major to be true, 'part' must be construed broadly so as to include it. Ergo, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vagueness.<\/em> If an ambiguous expression harbors a multiplicity of distinct meanings, a vague expression lacks a definite meaning. Ambiguity and vagueness should therefore not be confused.  To have multiple definite meanings is not the same as to have no one definite meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generality.<\/em> Statements divide into the singular and the general.  General statements divide into the universal, the particular, and the generic. 'Socrates is a man' is singular. 'All men are mortal' and 'Some mortals are men' are universal and particular respectively. 'Germans are industrious' is generic. For more on generics see Generic Statements<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please avoid the phrase 'vague generalities.' Just as you shouldn't confuse ambiguity with vagueness, you shouldn't confuse vagueness with generality.  Most generalizations have a definite meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disambiguation<\/em>. If an expression is ambiguous, then it cries out for disambiguation.  To disambiguate is to remove ambiguity by listing the different meanings of a word or phrase or sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Class dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ambiguity. A property of linguistic expressions, primarily. An expression is ambiguous if it has two or more distinct meanings. Back in the day a guy asked me, "Where's your head, man?" I thought he was inquiring into my psychological state, but he merely needed to relieve himself. 'Head' is ambiguous. In its nautical use it … Continue reading “Ambiguity, Vagueness, Generality, Disambiguation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-logica-docens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}