Spatial Metaphors of Ambiguity in Roman Culture
Short, WM
Date: 12 July 2018
Publisher
Paideia Institute
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Abstract
This chapter takes a somewhat different approach to the topic of ambiguity in Latin literature from
the others in this volume. Taking as a given that Latin speakers were mindful of the capacity of
some words, phrases, and even whole sentences to convey multiple different meanings, other
chapters examine a range of literary settings ...
This chapter takes a somewhat different approach to the topic of ambiguity in Latin literature from
the others in this volume. Taking as a given that Latin speakers were mindful of the capacity of
some words, phrases, and even whole sentences to convey multiple different meanings, other
chapters examine a range of literary settings where lexical or syntactic ambiguities appear to be
exploited deliberately by Latin authors for imaginative aims. I equally assume an awareness of
ambiguity on the part of Latin speakers, but in this paper I interrogate how they conceived of this
and other types of multiplicity of meaning.1
In other words, I look at how Latin speakers went
about representing ambiguity to themselves and how they understood ambiguity as part of their
experience generally. I start by showing that Latin speakers’ conventional understanding of
ambiguity is delivered metaphorically via the image of PATHS DIVERGING. I also show, however,
that in certain technical contexts the image of CENTRALITY is used, permitting the delineation of
two different kinds of ambiguous meaning relations. I go on to argue that what provides the
motivation for, and thus makes sense of, these twin images is Latin’s regular conceptualization of
“meaning” itself in terms of a linear spatial metaphor. I conclude by suggesting that Latin’s spatial
metaphorics of ambiguity anticipate certain aspects of contemporary linguistic theory – but also
more than this: that it constituted a feature of Roman society’s signifying order, contributing to the
valuation of this phenomenon in the culture.
Classics and Ancient History
College of Humanities
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