Ambiguity: New Paths, Old Borders

Abstract

Like other words that are often used when talking about certain linguistic topics, ambiguity is a term that comes from everyday language and that, precisely, is also ambiguous because it can have multiple interpretations. At the thirty-first edition of the Col·loqui Lingüístic de la Universitat de Barcelona (CLUB), held on 27 October 2023 at the Faculty of Philology and Communication of the University of Barcelona, we set out to study the phenomenon of linguistic ambiguity from different perspectives: from a language “internal” approach, that is to say, from those that refer to the grammatical system but also to its use; to a language “external” approach, associated mainly with the philosophical and legal fields. From a language internal approach, we asked ourselves to what extent ambiguity can be differentiated from phenomena such as generality of sense, vagueness or context-sensitivity; from a language external approach, we explored how ambiguity is handled in the construction of intelligent legal ecosystems, on the one hand, and in conceptual engineering, on the other.