Amphiboly

Biological Parallel

'Feeding wild animals prohibited'—does this ban feeding animals that are wild, or wild (uncontrolled) feeding of animals? Amphiboly arises from grammatical ambiguity. In biological signaling: a bird's alarm call might mean 'predator above' or 'above predator' (different threat levels). When syntax is ambiguous, receivers must infer meaning from context. Evolution favors syntactic clarity in high-stakes signals (alarm calls are stereotyped), but tolerates ambiguity in low-cost contexts (foraging calls vary). Communication errors have selection pressure.