amphiboly
nounUK /amˈfɪbəli/
Etymology From Old French amphibolie, from Latin amphibolia, from Ancient Greek ἀμφιβολία (amphibolía, “ambiguity”).
1
Grammar, Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Rhetoric An ambiguous grammatical construction.
- 1781, Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason," from John Meiklejohn 1855 translation Without this reflection I should make a very unsafe use of these conceptions, and construct pretended synthetical propositions which critical reason cannot acknowledge and which are based solely upon a transcendental amphiboly, that is, upon a substitution of an object of pure understanding for a phenomenon.
- By logical errors I mean such simple things as Equivocation, Amphiboly, and Begging the Question.1931, Adrian Coates, “Philosophy as Criticism and Point of View,”, in Philosophy, volume 6, number 23, page 339:
1 more example
- The language might be fraught with word ambiguity or sentence amphiboly.1987, Jeffrey Buechner, “Radically Misinterpreting Radical Interpretation,”, in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, volume 45, number 4, page 410:
- Derived terms
- amphibolic, amphibology
- Related terms
- equivocation