Ambiguity in the sentence "In case of fire, do not use elevator."

Question

The aforementioned sentence arises in an assignment of the course Introduction to Mathematical Thinking, where the notion of literary ambiguity is made explicit in our everyday use of language. However, unlike with the sentence "No head injury is too trivial to ignore"(which, to my surprise, has already been asked about on English.SE), I cannot figure out any ambiguity with the current phrasing of the sentence. The answer seeks two ambiguous interpretations which deviate from the originally intended meaning, and I would like this dilemma to be resolved.
(Further tags may be added as deemed suitable, I can only call this a simple case of ambiguity for now)

Chris H · Accepted Answer

Consider "in case of accidents, don't drive too fast". In that case it's clear that not driving too fast is to avoid accidents (though clearly driving fast near them isn't a great idea either).
The alternative meaning in your example is "to avoid fires, don't use the elevator". That's nonsensical, so there's no everyday ambiguity and we all understand  "if there's a fire, don't use the elevator"

Ambiguity in the sentence "In case of fire, do not use elevator."

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question