The remedy for a verbal fallacy depends on the location of the ambiguity.
CauseWhat changes?
EquivocationThe sense of a shared term
Literal / figurative useThe kind of predication
MorphologyAgent versus patient reading
Vowels or dotsReading or syntactic relation
CompositionScope of pronoun, qualifier, or predicate
All of these can break the constancy of meaning required by an inference; identifying the particular cause is the first step in correcting it.
Opening interactive controls...
Causes of Error: Misunderstanding and Verbal Ambiguities
The remedy for a verbal fallacy depends on the location of the ambiguity.
CauseWhat changes?
EquivocationThe sense of a shared term
Literal / figurative useThe kind of predication
MorphologyAgent versus patient reading
Vowels or dotsReading or syntactic relation
CompositionScope of pronoun, qualifier, or predicate
All of these can break the constancy of meaning required by an inference; identifying the particular cause is the first step in correcting it.