ambiguity

The picture above is the representation of ambiguity. Ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meaning in a passage. A word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one possible meaning. In other word, a word, phrase, or sentence that has only one meaning is not ambiguous. For example, the word “Duck” it can be “a horse” or “a snap”; the word “leaves” can mean “the present form of left” or “the plural form of leaf”.

Ambiguitas (kata benda) berasal dari bahasa Inggris yaitu ambiguity yang berarti suatu konstruksi yang dapat ditafsirkan lebih dari satu arti. Ambiguitas sering juga disebut ketaksaan  yang dapat diartikan atau ditafsirkan memiliki lebih dari satu makna. Hal ini mengakibatkan terjadinya lebih dari satu makna ini dapat terjadi saat pembicaraan lisan ataupun dalam keadaan tertulis.

Menurut Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, ambiguitas (nomina) dari ambigu (adjektiva) ; 1 sifat atau hal yang berarti dua: kemungkinan yang mempunyai dua pengertian; taksa; 2 ketidaktentuan; ketidakjelasan; 3 kemungkinan adanya makna yang lebih dari satu atas suatu karya sastra; 4 kemungkinan adanya makna lebih dari satu di sebuah kata, gabungan kata, atau kalimat.

Ambiguitas ini terdiri dari tiga bentuk yakni:

1.      Ambiguitas fonetik

2.      Ambiguitas gramatikal

3.      Ambiguitas Leksikal

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Denotation and Connotation

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation is a word's literal meaning. For example, were Juliet to look up the word 'rose' in the dictionary, she would find something like, 'a bush or shrub that produces flowers, usually red, pink, white or yellow in color.' Similarly, street names, like Sistrunk Boulevard or Northeast Sixth Street, tell people where they are and help them get to where they want to go.

On the other hand, connotation is a word's underlying meanings; it is all the stuff we associate with a word. So, while a rose is indeed a type of flower, we also associate roses with romantic love, beauty and even special days, like Valentine's Day or anniversaries. Connotations go beyond the literal to what we think and feel when we hear or see a word.

So, while Sistrunk Boulevard tells people in Fort Lauderdale where they are (denotation), the name also makes some people feel pride because it honors a well-regarded local figure in the black community (connotation). Others see the name Sistrunk as having negative connotations because of its history of blight and crime. For some in the community, that which we call a rose, by any other name does not smell as sweet.

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Euphemism

Definition

Euphemism is the substitution of an inoffensive expression (such as "passed away") for one considered offensively explicit ("died"). Contrast with dysphemism. Adjective: euphemistic.

In his Oxford Dictionary of Euphemisms (2007), R.W. Holder notes that in speech or writing "we use euphemism for dealing with taboo or sensitive subjects. It is therefore the language of evasion, hypocrisy, prudery, and deceit."

Maksud perkataan euphemism adalah / The meaning of euphemism is :

bahasa kiasan, bahasa halus, eufemisme, perkataan yang lebih manis untuk menggantikan beberapa perkataan tertentu seperti ‘meninggal dunia’ untuk perkataan ‘mati’

Purpose

Euphemism use ranges from a polite concern for propriety, to attempting to escape responsibility for war crimes. For instance one reason for the comparative scarcity of written evidence documenting the exterminations at Auschwitz (at least given the scale) is "directives for the extermination process obscured in bureaucratic euphemisms." ColumnistDavid Brooks called the euphemisms for torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility."

Common examples

Euphemism	Basic word(s) for which substituted
adult entertainment, adult material	pornography
affirmative action	preference for women and/or minorities, usually in employment or academic admissions, also called reverse discrimination, or in the U.K. positive discrimination.
custodian, caretaker	janitor (also originally a euphemism: in Latin, janitor means doorman.)
challenged, differently abled	disabled
enhanced interrogation	torture
expecting	pregnant
family planning	contraceptives
making love, sleeping with, getting it on, having it off (U.K.), hooking up, doing it	having sexual intercourse;
sanitation worker, refuse worker (UK)	bin man, garbage man, dustman (UK)
underprivileged, economically disadvantaged	Poor
passed away	died
put to sleep	euthanized
visit from the stork	give birth

reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism

http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/euphemismterm.html

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