Disambiguation
I’m totally fascinated in the different inferences people make in our ambiguous language. For instances, in my last quiz, I said, “Do I have your IM (gmail, yahoo, icq, AIM)? If no, what is it? (specify flavor, please!)”
This is an unintentionally ambiguous sentence. Some people saw that parenthetical as a plea to add their messaging service so I’d have both name and service. Some people saw it as an admonishment that what I wanted was the -type- and nothing else (a perfectly reasonable assessment, as I ask that sort of “I just want to know” question all the time). And still others took me literally and responded with “kumquat!” Heh.
It’s this kind of ambiguity that is sometimes totally unavoidable. I make jokes based on the ambiguity of someone’s sentence (especially my own) all the freakin’ time. I don’t think I was quite so aware of it before my first job as phone tech support – it’s the Murphy’s Law of phone communicaton: Any language that can be misunderstood -will- be.
Hey, any chance to say kumquat, ya know? (They really are quite tasty, too… just remember to eat the rind with them).
Also, any chance I have to humorously misinterpret something I will. In this case, I know you have all of my pertinent IM information, so I ran with it.
I do still live in that helpdesk-type environment. I am constantly in contact with people around the globe and communicating solely through email or phone conversations, rarely face to face. I noticed one of the peculiar results of being in that situation for such a long time – in my business correspondence (and it’s starting to bleed over into casual, too) I agonize over words to use and be as precise as possible. My emails and telephone calls, when required, contain approximately $367.75 worth of twenty-five cent words. It does help, I rarely get asked for clarification, and things are done properly… I just feel like such a geek sending out things like that… even to other geeks.
SEE! I’ll have to have my girl read this.
SEE! I’ll have to have my girl read this.
Hey, any chance to say kumquat, ya know? (They really are quite tasty, too… just remember to eat the rind with them).
Also, any chance I have to humorously misinterpret something I will. In this case, I know you have all of my pertinent IM information, so I ran with it.
I do still live in that helpdesk-type environment. I am constantly in contact with people around the globe and communicating solely through email or phone conversations, rarely face to face. I noticed one of the peculiar results of being in that situation for such a long time – in my business correspondence (and it’s starting to bleed over into casual, too) I agonize over words to use and be as precise as possible. My emails and telephone calls, when required, contain approximately $367.75 worth of twenty-five cent words. It does help, I rarely get asked for clarification, and things are done properly… I just feel like such a geek sending out things like that… even to other geeks.