AMBIGUITAS-OBSCOENA  黃色歧義

黃色雙關法 AMBIGUITAS in the form of deliberate unresolved ambiguity which demonstratively leaves room for a reading which is obscene.

Commonly known as "amphibolia obscoena".

Hypernym
  • AMBIGUITASWORD-PLAY which mainly consists in the deliberate artistic and playful display of expressions with several meanings within the given context, often but not always with sustained ambiguity. 雙關法 Sustained ambiguity as a deliberate rhetorical ploy. Greek: amphibolia.
    • WORD-PLAYSPEECH ACT which does not only use words but plays with their form and content.WORD-PLAY
      • SPEECH ACTRHETORICAL TROPE in the form of a deliberate rhetorico-semantic act performed. [This definition is still a tentative stop-gap, and this category is far larger than I would like. It needs to be intelligently subdivided. CH]
        • RHETORICAL TROPE體裁詞格　RHETORICAL DEVICE mainly concerned with the structural semantics of expressions.
REF: Lausberg 1070

Greek/Latin: Quint. 8.3.44-7, 6.3.47 takes it as non-deliberate ambiguity opening a possibility for an obscene interpretation. Later rhetoricians have included deliberate forms. Very common in comedy.

Ancient Chinese: I cannot at this point remember a clear case of amphibolia obscoena in pre-Buddhist literature, but then I have not read the literature under that angle of interest. Certain interpretations of LAO would involve something related to this form - references to the sexual organs is not the same as obscenity! - but such interpretations do not plausibly attribute to LAO flippant deliberate obscenity as we have it all over the place in Aristophanes. Yuan drama, in any case, is often replete with this. XIXIANGJI 西廂記 is an extended exercise in amphibolia obscoena, if we are to believe Wilt Idema and Stephen West's recent translation and interpretation.

Rhetorical device locations: 0