Actual ambiguity refers to ambiguity that occurs in the act of speaking. It arises when a word or phrase, without variation either in itself or in the way the word is put forward, has different meanings. The statement does not contain adequate information to resolve the ambiguity, resulting in a number of legitimate interpretations. Two …
Continue reading ‘The second of three types of ambiguity: actual ambiguity’ »
Again, this is lifted from my thesis which looks unlikely to ever see the light of day unless I take it off the shelves in BEL library at UQ. Potential ambiguity arises when a term or a sentence is ambiguous in and of itself, for example, before its use in the context of a sentence …
Continue reading ‘The first of three types of ambiguity: potential ambiguity’ »
The following is an excerpt from my thesis, written in 2000. Ambiguity is an inherent property of all natural languages, including English (Jespersen 1922; Williamson 1994). Absolute precision of a language is pragmatically undesirable, because the language is unable to adapt to new concepts (Williamson 1994). The communication needed to ensure effective and efficient report …
This is a blog post from a CPA Australia Carbon Emissions Reporting Discussion Group meeting – the inaugural meeting – that I attended on 18th November 2008. Danny Power from PwC is the convenor. There will be an election of office-bearers at the end of the next meeting. The topics under discussion are going to …
Continue reading ‘An introduction to the Carbon Emissions Reporting regime in Australia’ »
Here in Australia, the big parental news (well, amongst parents of the under-5 set it’s a big topic, and amongst singletons and non-parentals it’s kind of a non-issue) is the failure of ABC Learning. A failure that comes despite guaranteed cashflow, subisidised products, high demand for services, and captive guilt-ridden parents. We have a 3 …