Mr. VYNER next spoke:Mr. Chairman, as there can be no stronger objection to any law than ambiguity, or indeterminate latitude of meaning, I think it necessary to propose, that some word of known and limited import, be substituted in the place of seafaring men; an expression which, if I was asked the meaning of it, I should find it difficult to explain. Are seafaring men those only who navigate in the sea?

There is nothing beyond a verbal ambiguity here if we look at it closely, and yet there is a corresponding uncertainty in the conception of Literature and Art commonly entertained, which leads many writers and many critics into the belief that what are called "effects" should be sought, and when found must succeed.

All things are full of ambiguity, And I admire this wond'rous accident.

"Very well then, to prevent ambiguity call it Have I Left Anything Out?

Behind me a redbird was whistling (cardinal grosbeak, I have been accustomed to call him, but I like the Southern name better, in spite of its ambiguity), now in eager, rapid tones, now slowly and with a dying fall.

A cuckoo would be cooing, perhaps; or a quail, with cheerful ambiguity, such as belongs to weather predictions in general,would be prophesying "more wet" and "no more wet" in alternate breaths; or two or three night-hawks would be sweeping back and forth high above the valley; or a marsh hawk would be quartering over the big oatfield.

And although the question be very obscure, according to Postellus, "full of controversy and ambiguity," beyond the reach of human capacity, fateor excedere vires intentionis meae, saith Austin, I confess I am not able to understand it, finitum de infinito non potest statuere, we can sooner determine with Tully, de nat.

Why did he not, in plain words, and sober earnest, and good faith, describe the thing as it was, instead of employing honied words and courtly phrases, to set forth with all becoming vagueness and ambiguity what might possibly be supposed to exist in the regions of fancy.

Why did he not, in plain words and sober earnest, and good faith, describe the thing as it was, instead of employing honied words and courtly phrases, to set forth with all becoming vagueness and ambiguity, what might possibly be supposed to exist in the regions of fancy.

The liability of confounding the English participle with the verbal or participial adjective, amounts to nothing more than the occasional misnaming of a word in parsing; or perhaps an occasional ambiguity in the style of some writer, as in the following citation: "I am resolved, 'let the newspapers say what they please of canvassing beauties, haranguing toasts, and mobbing demireps,' not to believe one syllable.

And he immediately adds: "When this construction produces ambiguity, the expression must be varied."Ib., p. 171.

To say, "from our having received of the words through a French medium," would certainly be no elegance; and if it be not an ambiguity, it is something worse.

This distinction, though frequently neglected, deserves attention; for it is obvious that ambiguity may arise from using the latter only of these phraseologies to express both meanings.

34.Any phraseology that conveys not the intended idea, or that involves such an absurdity as that of calling a lady an "incident" is doubtless sufficiently reprehensible; but, compared with a rule of grammar so ill-devised as to mislead the learner nine times in ten, an occasional ambiguity or solecism is a mere trifle.

III.When the insertion of the word of, to complete the conversion of the transitive participle into a noun, produces ambiguity or harshness, some better phraseology must be chosen.

NOTE VI.When a compound participle is converted into a noun, the hyphen seems to be necessary, to prevent ambiguity; but such compound nouns are never elegant, and it is in general better to avoid them, by some change in the expression.

The ambiguity may be removed thus:'from

"AMPHIBOLOGY is ambiguity of construction, phraseology which may be taken in two different senses.

But obvious as is the ambiguity of this fictitious example, in all its forms, not one of these five critics perceived the fault at all.

We should say my going, notwithstanding the ambiguity.

The propriety of a past action is as proper a subject of remark as that of a future one; the explanatory phrase here introduced has therefore nothing to do with Priestley's distinction, or with the alleged ambiguity.

With the ambiguity in the use of the pronouns remedied, the sentences are entirely coherent.

The only person who kept cool was Mrs. Riddel, and it was quite clear to the beholders that she had realized neither the ambiguity of her question nor the meaning of her opponent's reply.

E. There is some inexplicable ambiguity in this passage, which the original translator must have misunderstood, and which cannot now be explained.

When he expected the heaviest demand on his address, in order to check the usual forward and reckless familiarity of Seadrift, in order that his connexion with the 'Skimmer of the Seas' might be as much as possible involved in ambiguity, to his own amazement, he found his purpose more than aided by the sudden and extraordinary respect with which he was treated.