stepgrandparents and relational ambiguity

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> part of the problem in this thread is that people are falling back on
> an ordinary-language, non-technical use of the word "ambiguous", where
> an expression is said to be ambiguous if two or more differences in
> understanding can be discerned for it (especially where the
> differences in understanding are salient for you).  this usage
> embraces ambiguity in the technical sense, vagueness, multiplicity of
> referents for referential expressions, differences in speaker
> intentions (sarcasm or not?, etc.), and much else.  semanticists do
> not use "ambiguous" in this very broad way.

I guess that makes "ambiguous" both ambiguous (non-technically
speaking) and vague (technically speaking).


--Ben Zimmer

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