The ambiguous statement
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 07:54PM Make an ambiguous statement with what would normally be a clearly accepted primary meaning, but reflect on (reply to, etc.) the statement using the secondary meaning. Better if the secondary meaning is derogatory, has sexual innuendo, etc. If the statement is intentionally supposed to be humorous, then the accepted primary meaning has to be strong or the joke is too easily expected, but if the statement is unintentionally humorous then the statement can be anything down to balanced betwen primary and secondary meaning.
Examples:
Intentional:
"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I'll never know." Groucho Marx
Un-intentional:
"This is the worst disaster in California since I was elected." California Pat Brown
These examples collected from http://www.gray-area.org/Research/Ambig/
SteveW |
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