Ambiguity

Ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings in a single passage. Adjective: ambiguous.

In speech and writing, there are two basic types of ambiguity: (1) lexical ambiguity (the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word) and (2) syntactic ambiguity (the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words).
In addition, ambiguity is sometimes regarded as a fallacy (commonly known as equivocation) in which the same term is used in more than one way.

Difference Between Ambiguity and Vagueness

At first glance, it may seem that ambiguity and vagueness are nearly homonymic, as the definition of ambiguity allows for more than one potential conclusion. However, the possible interpretations of an ambiguous situation or phrase are limited and stem logically from the information presented. Vagueness, on the other hand, refers to a situation in which no interpretation can be successfully drawn because the information given is not clear enough.

Significance of Ambiguity in Literature

Ambiguity can be a powerful tool in literature when an author uses it intentionally. Ambiguous situations can force the reader to decide what happens in a story for him- or herself. This decision about which interpretation to choose thus reflects on the reader’s own psychology. If a reader is an optimistic person, for example, she or he might decide that things ended well, or if the reader has recently gone through a bad breakup he or she might decide that a betrayal was intentional rather than accidental. Authors sometimes write ambiguous endings in their books precisely to create situations that ask the reader to bring their own experience to bear to decide what happened.

Common Examples of Ambiguity

We experience ambiguity on a daily basis, whether in ordinary language and conversation, or while watching politicians or comedians. Here are some simple sentences that have more than one possible interpretation:

• The bark was painful. (Could mean a tree’s bark was rough or a dog’s bark communicated pain or hurt the listener’s ears).
• You should bring wine or beer and dessert. (Could mean that you must bring just wine, wine and dessert, or beer and dessert).
• Harry isn’t coming to the party. Tell Joe that we’ll see him next week. (The “him” could refer either to Harry or to Joe).

An example of an ambiguos expression is the word ‘pike’; it can mean a kind of fish, or it can mean a kind of weapon
            Interdeterminacy is quite a different concept.It was state above that the meaning of an expression fixes its connotation. The connotation of an expression must be possesed by each object in its denotation. In this way, an expression determines that object in tis denotation possess certain properties, namely, the properties which are its connotation and not possess certain others, namely, those incompetible with its connotation, it does not determine any other properties. It is with respect to these last properties that an expression is determine.

References :
http://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/s06/readings/gillon90.pdf
http://www.literarydevices.com/ambiguity/
http://grammar.about.com/od/terms/g/ambiguity.htm