# What's an ambiguist?



## JustRob (Jan 16, 2017)

I have found references to ambiguists on the Internet but no explanation there of what an ambiguist actually is. Does anyone know? They appear to be mentioned in theses on semantics and pragmatism which go right over my head but sound as though they could be relevant to writing unambiguously.


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## The Fantastical (Jan 16, 2017)

I have no idea... Just spent a good while trying to google them, nothing but vague mentions in political papers and one blog post about them needing to set rules for themselves.


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## Bloggsworth (Jan 16, 2017)

Sounds like a neologism. *Ambiguist* _n._  Someone who always issues ambiguous statements. Describes most polititions during the pre-election phase.


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## The Fantastical (Jan 16, 2017)

Sounds like most politicians, end of! lol


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## Darkkin (Jan 16, 2017)

An individual specialising in supposition without forming a clear opinion or thought of one's own.  Kinda sorta unendingly vague...Denizens of the grey areas.


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## JustRob (Jan 16, 2017)

Darkkin said:


> An individual specialising in supposition without forming a clear opinion or thought of one's own.  Kinda sorta unendingly vague...Denizens of the grey areas.



_The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics_, a book which no doubt every real writer has to hand but I don't, mentions both ambiguists and those of a different view, who are apparently monoguists. (My spelling checker is currently having a fit.) The terms seem to be used predominantly when discussing how negative the word "not" is. Stating the something is "not true" may imply that it is untrue or that its veracity is indeterminate. Apparently in some languages there's more than one way of saying "not" but not (!) in English as such. Therefore I get the impression that ambiguists are something more precise than you suggest. It seems to be a matter of setting pragmatics against semantics, something that we can easily descend into in these forums.

I find this term interesting as I've always been one to see the other possible interpretation of a statement and hence its ambiguity, so I may be one. 

In one reference the statement that Schrödinger's cat is "not dead" is suggested to mean that it might be but we just don't know. This is a "lesser negation" I think. I suppose the "greater negation" would be that it was "definitely not dead", i.e. that someone had already opened the box to check. 

So far I have only found the term used in the context of negative statements, so don't know what its general meaning might be.

I suppose the ambiguist approach to the apparently paradoxical text "This statement is not true." would be to read it as "This (text is a) statement (and as such it) is not true." The paradox therefore vanishes because the only possible interpretation that works is that it is actually not a statement but just text with the syntax of a statement which states nothing. 

There's a lot of fun to be had with ambiguities like "not" and "this" in varying contexts. For example -

"This statement is not true." (I don't understand what this means, maybe because I'm a dog.)

"This statement is not true. I am a man." (So I'm not a man, definitely a dog then.)

"I am a woman. This statement is not true. I am a man." (So, I'm not a dog but a woman ... no wait, maybe a man. Pavlov has a lot to answer for. Life was a lot simpler when I thought that I was a dog.)

"I am a woman. This statement is not true. I am a man. No, that statement is not true." (Oh, miaow! Schrödinger! Get me out of here!)

I have a feeling that such issues are at the root of our ability to write text that flows well in the reader's mind, but that how they interpret our words may depend on their perceptions of semantics and pragmatism. Very interesting, but also very confusing.


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## kunox (Jan 18, 2017)

I am thinking it might have something to do with ambiguity..... lets see what that definition is.

am·bi·gu·i·ty
[ˌambəˈɡyo͞owədē]

*[h=4]NOUN[/h]*


uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language: 
"we can detect no ambiguity in this section of the Act" · [more]
"ambiguities in such questions are potentially very dangerous"


*synonyms:* vagueness · obscurity · abstruseness · doubtfulness · uncertainty · [more]
dubiety · ambivalence · equivocation · double meaning





a lack of decisiveness or commitment resulting from a failure to make a choice between alternatives: 
"the film is fraught with moral ambiguity"


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## kunox (Jan 18, 2017)

an ambiguity--- ist


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## JustRob (Jan 18, 2017)

kunox said:


> an ambiguity--- ist



So, a practitioner of ambiguity, but in interpretation or perpetration?


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## kunox (Jan 18, 2017)

not sure....


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## JustRob (Jan 19, 2017)

JustRob said:


> So, a practitioner of ambiguity, but in interpretation or perpetration?





kunox said:


> not sure....



So which of us is the ambiguist, the one who sees two possibilities or the one who isn't sure what possibilities exist? Maybe it's me then.


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## kunox (Jan 19, 2017)

to me the one that sees two or more possibilities but i may be wrong... also this can be one of those words that have a definition.... and a definition opposite of that.

edit:sorry thank you for rephrasing the question. talk about not seeing the forest because of the trees.


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## JustRob (Jan 19, 2017)

kunox said:


> edit:sorry thank you for rephrasing the question. talk about not seeing the forest because of the trees.



Icelandic joke: If you are lost in the forest stand up. (The trees in Iceland are so stunted by the short growing season that you can see over the top of even ones a century old.)


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## bobo (Jan 19, 2017)

It seems you have much more fun playing around yourself with the possible meanings of that word 

Charles Sander Peirce is seen as the founder of the 'Pragmatism', and the 'semiotic' where he engulfed himself in the relation between 'the signifying item' and 'that which it signifies' - let's not go there :wink:
But your word is basically an arcane word, stemming from early 16th century according to _The New Oxford Dictionary of English_.
(Latin: _ambiguus_ ~ 'doubtful' (from _ambigere_ ~ 'waver, go around'; from _ambi- ~ _'both ways'_ + agere ~ _'to drive')
Like an ambiguist describes a person expressing itself in an ambiguous manner, we can also talk about 'portmanteau' words, i.e. one word with two meanings at the same time, like 'slithy' which Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Caroll's _Through the Looking Glass_ explains as following:
'Slithy,' Humpty Dumpty explained 'means 'lithe and slimy'... You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word'.  
In Abrams: A_ Glossery of Literary Terms,_ it's mentioned the term 'ambiguity' to be widely used in criticism for identifying a deliberate poetic devise: the use of a single word or expression to signify two or more distinct references, ot to express two or more diverse attitudes or feelings (with example from Shakespeare's Cleopatra ) - one can also say 'multiple meaning' or 'plurisignation' instead of the a-word for avoiding the *perjorative associated with that (the a-word) :teapot:*

So, may be you better call yourself something else than an ambiguist - what about, no don't think you'll like to be a portmanteau either :mrgreen:
Related terms are _connotation, denotation, and pun._


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## kunox (Jan 19, 2017)

bobo said:


> It seems you have much more fun playing around yourself with the possible meanings of that word
> 
> Charles Sander Peirce is seen as the founder of the 'Pragmatism', and the 'semiotic' where he engulfed himself in the relation between 'the signifying item' and 'that which it signifies' - let's not go there :wink:
> But your word is basically an arcane word, stemming from early 16th century according to _The New Oxford Dictionary of English_.
> ...



not that you are talking to me but I love playing around with words....


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## JustRob (Jan 20, 2017)

bobo said:


> But your word is basically an arcane word, stemming from early 16th century according to _The New Oxford Dictionary of English_.



Oh, but I do like to be arcane occasionally. My currently favourite word is "preternatural" because people have difficulty distinguishing the meaning from other associated words. The first page of my novel contains the word "hyphephilial", which as an adjective probably doesn't even exist, but at least in the latest revision I am kind enough to the reader to explain how I am using it because it has a more common specific interpretation. I also mention how words dress according to the fashion of the age when using the word "gay", as you can imagine. In fact my entire novel plays on and with words and the devices used when writing them and surreptitious ambiguity abounds, as it does in many things that spill thoughtlessly from people's mouths, I find. As an information technologist I think our language is an imprecise means of conveying information.


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