Reading in two ways 

While we read different types of articles, novels or even short sentences, we can find different points of view and different ways of understanding what it says. This is due to connotation and denotation:

Connotation: The associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: A possible connotation of “home” is “a place of warmth, comfort, and affection.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/connotation)

Denotation:  the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that a word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/denotation)

In class we saw different texts were ambiguity was obvious and in some occasions hilarious. Examples of this were:

·         Hospitals are sued by 7 foot doctors.

·         Slow children at play.

·         Iraqi head seeks arms.

·         Toilet out of order. Please use floor below.

In all of the examples above, ambiguity made the sentences not clearly enough to understand what the author meant. I can think that in the hospital the doctors are 7 feet tall, whereas another person may think that the doctors in the hospital have 7 feet.

This image presents and ambiguity because it can be seen  as a young woman or an old woman.