Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Blog 6: Mitchell & Webb - Needlessly ambiguous terms
One of the many ideas in Chapter 5 includes Ambiguity. This is when words, phrases, or sentences have more than one meaning. I felt that there had to be something comical on YouTube that dealt with ambiguity. I was right. I found a clip from a BBC Sketch Comedy Show. A criminal leader is annoyed with Detective Harrison and wants him killed. The leader hires 2 of his men to assassinate Harrison. As he gives instructions he says he wants Harrison "removed" and "taken out the picture." One of the hired killers claims that the terms are ambiguous and he needs to be straight forward and just say he wants Harrison dead.
As I said earlier I wanted to find something funny on YouTube that dealt with ambiguity. I really enjoyed this video as it dealt with it perfectly. An any situation the things you say can be easily ambiguous. It's possible someone who speaks another language while trying to learn another language might be confused about what you said.
What I really liked about this video was the phrase "taken out of the picture." I came close to thinking that Detective Harrison was going to be removed from a photograph. I quickly remembered that this wasn't the case.
There isn't much to agree with in this video but in a way there were trying to make an interesting point in which I do agree with. Ambiguity can be confusing. As I said "taken out the picture" almost fooled me.
Ambiguity is definitely an interesting subject. I really like the fact that words and sentences can have more than 1 meaning. There's no question that there is more to ambiguity that meets the eye.
The world is definitely affects by this. Advertisers are probably the most guilty of this. They might say a product is big. What do they mean when they say that? Do they mean the product is popular or big in size? Politicians will even do things like this. It's important to be aware and alert of this.
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A language's ambiguity makes it difficult for non-native speakers too! I wonder how far back ambiguity goes in the English language? Has it always been there, was it used more by playwrights to get a laugh than by the general population, was it used by by those in a higher social class to feel superior to the "common man" or perhaps it was the other way 'round. I could spend days researching questions like this!
ReplyDeleteThe video you posted was hilarious. I really liked watching it. I agree with you that people learning English find it difficult to comprehend because some of the sentences we use are ambiguous. People who understand the language will know what is being said, or not. Depending on how familiar we are with the person and what they truly mean. Our perspective and influence in life makes us think a certain way and how we understand a sentence. For example, when he was saying "taken out of the picture," my first thought was that he wanted Harrison dead. Since, I like watching shows or reading books about spies, agents, and other themes related to criminal justice. Thanks for sharing the video.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this video! I think that English Language Learners are confused by common ambiguity of our everyday speech. Even fluent speakers of English have a difficulty distinguishing the context sometimes. It really depends on who you are talking to and how familiar you are with their tone of voice and their type of speech. Thank you for sharing this!!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the use of ambiguity was being used in this case almost as if to create Euphemisms for the murder of a man. However Euphemisms are usually less common sayings that are memorable rather than the ambiguous phrases used in the video you posted that uses common phrases we could get confused over if we don't know the context in which they are spoken.
ReplyDeleteGreat video to demonstrate ambiguity! I thought of "being taken out of the picture" exactly as you did and expected someone to take a knife to a family photo or something of equal hilarity. Ambiguity is sometimes hard to get around with the terms and phrases that are popular and used often.
ReplyDelete