LOGICAL FALLACIES
♦ Semantic Blank
♦ Screens out emotive language
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ EQUIVOCATION: Allowing a key word or
phrase to shift its meaning in the course of
the argument.
♦ Etymology:
♦ EQUI = equal
♦ VOX = voice
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ EQUIVOCATION
♦ Example:
♦ Only man is rational.
♦ No woman is a man
♦ Therefore no woman is rational
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ EQUIVOCATION: Uses the same term
with different meanings.
♦ Democracy
♦ Liberal
COMFTF 08
Linguistic Fallacies
♦ Freedom
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ EQUIVOCATION
♦ Example:
♦ The things which have real educational
value should obviously be the core of a
college curriculum. Nobody who has ever
tried to get a job will deny that typing is
valuable.Certainly, then all students should
be required to take typing.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ EQUIVOCATION
♦ Example:
♦ Practice makes perfect. Physicians have
practiced the art of healing for thousands of
years. My physician, therefore, who studied
at one of our greatest medical schools,
should be perfect in this field.
COMFTF08
Linguistic Fallacies
♦ As far as I’m concerned, we need pay no
attention to the president of the college
when it comes to educational matters
because he has no authority in
education.
♦ He doesn’t even have enough authority to
prevent students from staging protest
rallies.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMBIGUITY: occurs when we use terms
which are :
♦ Ill-defined
♦ Vague in meaning
♦ Signify variety of ideas
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMBIGUITY:
♦ Example:
♦ Objective consideration of contemporary
phenomena compels the conclusion that
success in competitive activities is in no
way commensurate with innate capacity,
but a considerable amount of the
unpredictable must be taken into account.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMBIGUITY
♦ Example:
♦ Ecclesiastes 9:11- I returned and saw under
the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor
the battle to the strong, nor bread to the
wise, nor riches to men of understanding,
nor favor to men of skill; but time and
chance happen to them all.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ 1. A statement is spoken in a tone of voice
not intended for it.
♦ 2. Certain words in it are wrongly accented
or stressed.
♦ 3. Certain words (or even sentences or
paragraphs) are taken out of context and
thus given an emphasis(and therefore a
meaning) they were not intended to have.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ Aristotle – applied the term to
misinterpretations resulting from words that
differ in syllabic content.
♦ Invalid Sick person
♦ Invalid Faulty argument
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ Occurs less frequently in oral speech
♦ We commit the fallacy of accent when we
try to deceive by changing the part of the
phrase to be emphasized.
♦ The meaning changes depending upon
which parts of the phrase we emphasize or
accent.
COMFTF09
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ (But other people may speak ill of them).
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ (But we do anyway)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ We should not speak ill our friends.
♦ (But we can think or write ill of them.)
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ (But we can speak good of them.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ ( But we can speak ill of your friends.)
♦ We should not speak ill of our friends.
♦ (But we can speak ill of our enemies.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (But Fred may have said it.)
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (Under no circumstances did I ever say
that.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (But I may have thought or written it.)
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (But his friend may have hit her.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (But he may have hit Harry’s wife.)
♦ I never said he hit his wife.
♦ (But he could have hit his girlfriend or
mistress.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ ACCENT
♦ Yiddish Humor
♦ Leo Rosten’s word play
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ Two tickets for concert I should buy?
♦ (I’m having enough trouble buying one.)
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ (You mean she isn’t giving away free
passes?)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ (After she didn’t come to my son’s recital?)
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ (She calls that hideous racket and noise a
concert?)
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ (What about the other office members?)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ ( Are you giving me a lesson in ethics?)
♦ Two tickets for her concert I should buy?
♦ (Why isn’t she giving them away free?)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY
♦ Result or product of poor structure.
♦ Results when words are incorrectly or
loosely grouped in a sentence, giving rise to
a meaning not intended by the author.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY
♦ Etymology: Greek
♦ AMPHO = Double (On both sides)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY
♦ Produce a two-fold interpretation because
of its awkward structure( or the awkward
way in which its words are combined),
rather than from any deliberate attempt to
deceive.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY EXAMPLES
♦ Eat here and get gas.
♦ The Longview Committee on Public
Decency is looking into plunging necklines.
♦ There are some things that one should not
eat, especially children.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY EXAMPLES:
♦ Church Sign: Do You Know What Hell Is?
♦ Come Hear Our New Organist.
♦ Clean and decent boxing every night except
Sunday.
♦ Apartment for rent: View takes in 4
counties. 2 bedrooms.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY EXAMPLES:
♦ For Sale 1969 Cadillac hearse. Body in
good condition.
♦ Lost cat: owner worried, neutered and
declawed.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ AMPHIBOLY EXAMPLES:
♦ Church sign: Is There A God
♦ Who Cares?
♦ Sign in druggist’s window:
♦ We dispense with accuracy.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ COMPOSITION:
♦ We commit the fallacy of composition
when we attempt to apply what is true of
the part or individual to the whole group.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ COMPOSITION EXAMPLE:
♦ If we say Jones is the best quarterback in
the country. Smith is the best fullback in the
country. Davis is the best receiver in the
country.Putting them together on the Aggie
team will not necessarily make the Aggies
the best team in the country.
♦ Prima Donnas do not always make good
choir members.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ COMPOSITION EXAMPLES:
♦ A statement about an integral part of
something is not necessarily true about the
composite whole:
♦ Six blind men and the elephant:
♦ One holding tusk:”An elephant is like a
spear.”
♦ One holding trunk: “No its flexible like a
rope.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ COMPOSITION EXAMPLES:
♦ Six Blind Men and The Elephant.
♦ One holding ear: “No its soft like a palm
leaf.”
♦ One feeling side: “It feels like a wall.”
♦ None of them described the elephant in its
totality.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ COMPOSITION EXAMPLES:
♦ The atomic bombs dropped during W.W. II
did more damage than the ordinary bombs
dropped.
♦ ( Collectively, more conventional types
were dropped. Collectively, the
conventional bombs did more damage.)
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ DIVISION
♦ The fallacy of division occurs when an
individual assumes that what is true of a
composite whole is true for each component
part considered separately.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ DIVISION EXAMPLES:
♦ Texas A&M is a world famous institution.
♦ Carl Jones attends Texas A&M.
♦ Carl Jones is a world famous student.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ DIVISION
♦ The fallacy of division takes place when
one makes the assumption that what holds
true about a collection of elements must
hold true for each of the individual elements
themselves.
COMFTF08
LINGUISTIC FALLACIES
♦ DIVISION EXAMPLE:
♦ American Indians are disappearing.
♦ Jim Big Crow is an American Indian.
♦ Jim Big Crow is disappearing.