Typically, communication can be thought of as that which is speaker is saying to a listener. However, there may be a little more going on behind the scenes than the simple content of what is being said. Also of note is what is not being said and what *could* have been said.
Let's start by identifying a term. We'll construct the word 'ambiguant' for the purpose of this post. The word ambiguant will be proposed as meaning 'an object or construct which is used to introduce ambiguity'. Ambiguity, of course, being that which can be interpreted in more than one way. We're done with that bit of housekeeping, so let's trudge onward.
Ambiguity can take several forms. That is, it can be introduced through several methods. In spoken communication we have phonological ambiguity. This occurs when a given segment of communication sounds like more than one valid construct. It can be introduced in a variety of levels, but we'll start with the simplest case, which is at the word level. In written communication, we gain the ability to introduce visual ambiguity. This occurs when a handwritten word is hard to identify (but could work as a couple of interpretations). Both written and verbal forms of communication, however, are subject to conceptual ambiguity. This can be achieved through metaphor.
So, adhering to order of appearance, let's spend a little time recognizing the beast that is 'phonological ambiguity'. Homophones can fill this role. Sometimes it takes a little shoehorning and creativity to create the right kind of effect while other times it lends itself naturally. "There was a sale, boats were half off". "We went yard-saling". These two examples can possibly bring to mind 'sailing', although it's never explicitly mentioned. And depending upon the inflection used in the first example, it may be the case that the listener thinks the speaker will be talking about a sailboat versus a sale. An example that requires a bit of TLC to fit in correctly is walking up to a girl and giving the compliment "nice boots". And that should be a nice segue into visual ambiguity as we roll right along ;-)
Visual ambiguity happens when a certain visual stimulus could be correctly interpreted in more than one way. It's hard to exemplify here, but it shouldn't require too much stretching of the mind. Let's take a handwritten '5D'. Written just right, it could be viewed as either '5D' (as it's supposed to be) or the acronym 'SD'... in which case it could be talking about an electronic storage medium or a state... Used in the right context, this sort of ambiguity could be interesting. But, tying into the last example of phonological ambiguity, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to write 'boots' in such a way that the 't' resembles either a 'b' or a 'k'. These 'ambiguants' can be created by a crafty combination of letter spacing or 'accidental' marks and half-erasures. Also worth noting are cases like the word 'tear'.
I won't linger on conceptual ambiguity for too long, but it's essentially a communication which has a literal meaning and some other possible interpretations bundled along with it. Maybe you've seen the joke involving the creation of a scene with in/out motion, doesn't last long, sometimes does, can be very enjoyable, gets white stuff in your mouth... and happens to be brushing your teeth? I didn't recreate it here, but I'm sure you get the point.
So, for the section we've all been waiting for... or at least the one that I've been most interested in writing: who the hell cares? Well, ambiguity can be viewed as similar to process forking in operating systems. 'WTF??' you may be asking... well, it causes psychic (not the Mrs. Cleo kind, silly) to be used on disambiguation. This causes attention (resources) to be split between what is currently being said (rather: said after the ambiguity was introduced) and reconciling that with what was 'perceived'. Translation? Temporary confusion, or as the hypnotists like to call it, susceptibility to trance. It becomes increasingly easy to slip things into the conversation as the mental wheels churn away in confusion. It begins to suspend the critical factor of the mind the more it's engaged in and bogged down with making sense of what is being perceived. It creates a break in the line of communication.
One application of this is indirect suggestion and priming. What's that nice fabric that gets imported from China? What color are clouds? What do cows drink? That kind of thing. I wonder if it'd be more effective to ask what someone usually puts in their cereal before the last question? That might be pushing the issue.
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