Amphibology
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Amphibology or amphiboly (from the Greek amphibolia) is, in logic, a verbal fallacy arising from ambiguity in the grammatical structure of a sentence.
Some examples:
Teenagers shouldn't be allowed to drive. It's getting too dangerous on the streets.
- This could be taken to mean the teenagers will be in danger, or that they will cause the danger.
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas.
- A famous quotation by Groucho Marx from the comedic film Animal Crackers, it is unclear if the speaker shot the elephant while wearing pajamas or if the elephant was in the speaker's pajamas.
Amphiboly occurs frequently in poetry, owing to the alteration of the natural order of words for metrical reasons; for example, Shakespeare, in Henry VI: The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose. (1.4.30).
Marlowe in Edward II provides an equally famous example:
- Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est.
Depending on how the reader punctuates this line, this can be interpreted as Edward's death sentence, or as an order to preserve Edward's life
- Fear not to kill the king, 'tis good he die... kill not the king, 'tis good to fear the worst. (5.4.8-11)
[edit] Other examples of amphibology
- Dog for sale. Will eat anything. Especially fond of children.
- Used cars for sale: Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!
- At our drugstore, we dispense with accuracy!
- Eat our curry, you won't get better!
- (Professor to student, on receiving a fifty-page term paper): "I shall waste no time reading it." (Often attributed to Spooner)
[edit] Historical word usage
In reference to his Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to John Adams stating:
"We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus, paring off the amphibologisms into which they have been led, by forgetting often, or not understanding, what had fallen from him, by giving their own misconceptions as his dicta, and expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves." [1]
