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.
For example:
- Teenagers shouldn't be allowed to drive. It's getting too dangerous on the streets.
From the above could be interpreted that teenagers shouldn't drive because they will be in danger, or that they shouldn't drive as they are causing all the danger.
It occurs frequently in poetry, owing to the alteration for metrical reasons of the natural order of words; for example, Shakespeare, Henry VI:
- The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose.
Examples of amphibology:
- Dog for sale. Will eat anything. Especially fond of children.
- At our drugstore, we dispense with accuracy!
- (Professor to student, on receiving a fifty-page term paper): "I shall waste no time reading it."fr:Amphibologie