In
Linguistics,
de dicto/de re ambiguity is a
logical issue in
semantics and
pragmatics.
Take the statement, "Jan wants to
invite a clown to the wedding."
Assuming no
contrastive stress, this has two
readings:
1) the
de dicto ("of what is said") reading - Jan wants to invite someone on the basis of them being a
clown. He doesn't really care who the clown is, he just wants a clown to be present.
2) the
de re ("of the thing") reading - Jan wants to invite an individual, say,
Bozo, who happens to be a clown, and not necessarily because he's a clown.
These different readings are also represented differently in
logic using
predicate calculus.
W(x,Φ) - x wants to Φ where Φ is a proposition.
I(x,y) - x invites y to the wedding.
C(x) - x is a clown
j = Jan
And I will use E as the
existential quantifier and subscript to represent my restrictions (I use
restricted quantification.)
de dicto reading: W(j, Ex
C(x) I(j,x))
In English, roughly: Want holds between Jan and an Existant x, Clown of x, such that Invite holds between Jan and x.
de re reading: Ex
C(x) W(j, I(j, x))
English: There Exists an x, Clown of x, such that Want holds between Jan and x.