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• Title: Silence, The Utmost in Ambiguity (Essay)
• Author : CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
• Release Date : January 01, 2010
• Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
• Pages : * pages
• Size : 80 KB

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The fundamental question raised by the notion of ambiguity can be formulated in these terms: does ambiguity refer to the possibility of two interpretations or many interpretations? From an etymological point of view, there is no doubt that the first answer is the correct one. In Ancient Greek, amphibolfa contains the prefix amphi, which means "on one side and the other" and therefore implies that the "sides" are a pair. This adverb entered into competition with peri, the meaning of which is "around," and which prevailed. Furthermore, it is interesting to observe that one of the first uses of the word amphibolia, in Herodotus, for example, was in a strategic sense and meant "to be attacked from both sides," to be caught in the crossfire. From this derives the verb epamphoterizo, which means to engage in double dealing, to help two adversaries simultaneously. This is not unlike the numerical adjective in Latin ambo, identical to the Greek ampho (dual), which refers exclusively to the fact that two people are operating in the same place at the same time, while uter indicates that the two are separated in time and place. Amphibolia is therefore the same as the Latin ambiguitas (from ambo and ago, that is, literally to send something in two directions). Whilst this distinction may be blurred in classical Latin, with compound verbs with the prefix ambi- suggesting vagueness or more than two directions, and whilst this blurring is certainly also present when the word enters English in the sixteenth century, it is arguable that the dual sense tends to predominate. Many ancient authors took an interest in ambiguity, producing numerous examples which, for the most part, relate to the practice of rhetoric and public oratory. For instance, Cicero discusses it with regard to the conflicts which can arise in the interpretation of a written document in which some words are missing (De Oratore I 110). Quintilian produces numerous examples of grammatical and syntactical ambiguity (amphibolia, in Istitutio Oratoria VII, 9) and provides advice on resolving them: one must understand which of the two words or expressions is more correct and more natural, or what the writer or speaker effectively wished to say. These considerations have been repeated down the centuries by many scholars of rhetoric. This conception of ambiguity, remaining faithful to the first etymological meaning of the word which implies the existence of a dual opposition, seems to fade away completely in the twentieth century from both the literary and philosophical points of view, with regard to modernist criticism and existentialism respectively. They broaden enormously the meaning of the term ambiguity and at the same time they assign it a highly positive value. For William Empson, the author of Seven Types of Ambiguity, it is the defining characteristic of poetry par excellence; for Simone de Beauvoir, in her Pour une morale de l'ambiguite (The Ethics of Ambiguity), human existence is itself ambiguous because free action clashes with the unpredictable opacity of others and of prevailing circumstances, thus distorting its purposes. In this way the notion of ambiguity acquires a meaning different from the original: we are no longer dealing with ambiguity in the strict sense, limited to an opposition of two entities, but with a word or action susceptible to an indeterminate number of different interpretations.

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