Get INCORRECT PUNCTUATION, AS A CAUSE OF AMBIGUITY

Ambiguity occurs when a single word or phrase may be interpreted in two or more ways. As law frequently involves lengthy, complex texts, ambiguity is common. Thus, courts have evolved various doctrines for dealing with cases in which legal texts are ambiguous.

Using incorrect punctuation or using punctuation in the wrong place can completely change the meaning of the sentence. Therefore, it is important to use correct punctuation marks. These punctuation marks allow us to organize our thoughts in the correct manner and make one's writing easier to read and more appealing.

Semantic ambiguity exists when a word form corresponds to more than one meaning, as in the English word “organ”, which denotes both a body part and a musical instrument. For bilingual speakers, additional ambiguity may arise when a word form is shared across languages, but the meanings are different.

Little do they realize that punctuation matters: that the lack—or overuse—of punctuation marks can alter the meaning of texts and/or result in ambiguity. Ambiguous phrases or sentences are difficult to understand and can be misinterpreted.

Hence, an error in punctuation can convey a completely different meaning as against the intended one, thereby, making communication incomprehensible and ambiguous.

Of the three kinds of ambiguity - lexical, constructional (structural) and derivational ambiguity.

Phonetics, grammar, semantics, syntax, as small as punctuation and intonation can all be the cause of ambiguity. Based on this, linguists divide ambiguity into different types such as phonetic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, syntactic ambiguity, and pragmatic ambiguity.

Ambiguity is an unclear statement, task or goal. When you encounter an ambiguous situation, you may be unsure of how to proceed because the goal is vague or you don't have access to all of the information you need.