[lit-ideas] Re: Conversation Without Implicature
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 19:04:46 +0100 (BST)
Perhaps I don't understand the term "ambiguity" but I thought it denoted
statements that had more than one distinct meaning ["He was trapped in a vice"]
whereas this post seems to concern something that is definite enough as far as
it goes, but where it is left open-ended beyond that point. Deliberate
"open-endedness" seems more apt here than deliberate ambiguity.
In legal and political contexts "open-endedness" is often valuable, as is the
"wriggle room" left by it, but ambiguity is rarely valuable, since it raises
the question of one's 'distinct' meaning.
Donal
--- On Sat, 25/6/11, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Conversation Without Implicature
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Saturday, 25 June, 2011, 18:21
Ambiguity in language is just as much a useful tool as precision. There are
times when each is to be preferred, but surely we use language to increase
ambiguity as well as reduce it, even in non-poetic contexts.
Yes, indeed. Here's an example.
In the early/mid 1990s I was recruited by Paul Guilefoile, the best account
executive I ever worked with, to help with the pitches that won Hakuhodo Lintas
the relaunch of Coke Light and, later, the launch of Caffeine Free Diet Coke in
Japan. Together Paul and I worked out three important rules for working with
Coca-Cola.
1. Use Coca-Cola language and respect their taboos. Back then, for example, the
adjective "refreshing" could be applied only to classic red can Coke. Using
their language the way they used it demonstrated our familiarity with their
business and corporate culture.
2. Say something unexpected. Simply repeating what they told us would lead to
their concluding, quite properly, that we were adding nothing of value to them.
The art was in finding a new angle or line for development that they hadn't
thought of themselves, but presenting it to them in language that they would
find familiar and, thus, reassuring.
3. This was Paul's contribution, and I will always remember it. Appear to speak
as concretely as possible—but be sure to leave some wiggle room. The rationale,
in the context in which we worked, was persuasive: Planning and producing
advertising, especially TV commercials, requires input from all sorts of people
with different skills, and the better they are at their jobs the more they
insist on their own "creative input." So our presentations had to leave room
for on-the-spot modifications, in location, direction, costuming, narration,
dubbing, editing—modifications that would not be seen by the client as
violating the promises made in the presentation storyboards. Changing, for
instance, the cut of the model's dress might be acceptable; replacing Coke red
with a pinker or more orange red that caught the director's or stylist's
eye—that was definitely out.
I have since come to believe that this sort of what we might call "strategic
ambiguity" is an essential part of business and political activity, and one
whose importance grows with the size of the organizations and the diversity of
interests involved. I would even go so far as to suggest that it plays an
important role in academic life as well. After all, to become a "big idea," an
idea has to start out with sufficient ambiguity to allow disciples and
colleagues to develop and refine it. Perfect solutions are, I suspect, more
often than not, simply forgotten, clearing the way for new debates.
Some of these speculations may seem over the top. But the example, at least,
may serve to illustrate John Wager's excellent point.
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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