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This article offers an analysis of Isaiah 51.1–3, 4–6, 7–8. These units contain multiple similarities that emphasize the fundamental tension between the units, primarily regarding the nature of divine tidings and the identity of their beneficiaries. The first part of the article demonstrates the unique content and design of each unit through a literary analysis; however, since the reading process constantly reveals new content, the underlying tension is further intensified in the second part of the article, which leads to the conclusion that the units are deliberately ambiguous and multivalent. The multifaceted content facilitates an understanding of the units, and Deutero-Isaiah as a whole. The article demonstrates that the dynamic literary-rhetorical design and its interpretive consequences reflect the existence of various groups (which serve as the 'rhetorical situation' of these units), the prospective connections between these groups, and their potential for social, geographical, and ethnic mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue positions of political actors are often ambiguous, resulting in uncertainty on the part of voters. Such ambiguity constitutes a challenge to representation, as it prevents voters from getting a clear understanding of parties' positions. Ironically, despite growing interest in the concept, the concept itself is remarkably ambiguous: different studies use different conceptualisations of ambiguity, which hampers theory integration. This paper proposes a three-dimensional conceptualization of ambiguity: party positions are ambiguous to the extent that parties deemphasize them, remain vague or are inconsistent on them. A review of 103 studies establishes the prevalence of these three dimensions in the literature, shows that most studies focus on a single dimension, and reveals lacunae in the current research on ambiguity. Based on the three-dimensional conceptualisation, the paper then develops a preliminary framework on the causes of ambiguity, outlines key gaps in the literature and suggests promising avenues of theory development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theorisations of cultural preferences frequently posit a nexus between familiarity and pleasure. The pursuit and enjoyment of our tastes has been linked to the socialised acquisition of embodied cultural competencies and to psychological mechanisms of expectation. A genre such as contemporary art music disrupts this link to familiarity due to its emphasis on the explicitly unfamiliar. Drawing on interviews with concert attendees, this article examines how taste is put into practice and performed in a context marked by ambiguity. The data are significant for the disruption they represent to any idealised notion of how audiences engage with legitimate culture. Not only is the anticipation of pleasure largely absent, but the expression of taste is also far removed from an austere mode of contemplation and appreciation. Affective modes of appreciation are frequently employed, while audiences also often show a reluctance to engage in processes of evaluation. The article argues for the importance of understanding taste as comprising fluid, emergent and contingent strategies for forming an attachment to cultural objects in a field marked by ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens when an algorithm is added to the work of an expert group? This study explores how algorithms pose a practical problem for experts. We study the introduction of a Probabilistic DNA Profiling (PDP) software into a forensics lab through interviews and court admissibility hearings. While meant to support experts' decision-making, in practice it has destabilized their authority. They respond to this destabilization by producing alternating and often conflicting accounts of the agency and significance of the software. The algorithm gets constructed alternately either as merely a tool or as indispensable statistical backing; the analysts' authority as either independent of the algorithm or reliant upon it to resolve conflict and create a final decision; and forensic expertise as resting either with the analysts or with the software. These tensions reflect the forensic 'culture of anticipation', specifically the experts' anticipation of ongoing litigation that destabilizes their control over the deployment and interpretation of expertise in the courtroom. The software highlights tensions between the analysts' supposed impartiality and their role in the courtroom, exposing legal and narrative implications of the changing nature of expertise and technology in the criminal legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the prevalence of deadpan and ironic modes of humour undermines the possibility of clear and stable interpretation in online contexts. Analysing key examples of online deadpan humour through the lens of literary and critical models of irony, I argue that the decontextualisation of deadpan humour in online spaces accentuates the deadpan comic mode's tendency towards ambiguity in ways that hypothetically destabilise any claim to textual certainty. Drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, I propose the 'comic disposition' as a means to theorise how audiences learn to process the comic ambiguity of online deadpan humour, and suggest how the 'comic disposition' can be understood to inform observed tendencies towards distrust and confusion in digital culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When it comes to cybersecurity incidents – public opinion matters. But how do voters form opinions in the aftermath of cyberattacks that are shrouded in ambiguity? How do people account for the uncertainty inherent in cyberspace to forge preferences following attacks? This article seeks to answer these questions by introducing an uncertainty threshold mechanism predicting the level of attributional certainty required for the public to support economic, diplomatic or military responses following cyberattacks. Using a discrete-choice experimental design with 2025 US respondents, we find lower attributional certainty is associated with less support for retaliation, yet this mechanism is contingent on the suspected identity of the attacker and partisan identity. Diplomatic allies possess a reservoir of good will that amplifies the effect of uncertainty, while rivals are less often given the benefit of the doubt. We demonstrate that uncertainty encourages the use of cognitive schemas to overcome ambiguity, and that people fall back upon pre-existing and politically guided views about the suspected country behind an attack. If the ambiguity surrounding cyberattacks has typically been discussed as an operational and strategic concern, this article shifts the focus of attention to the human level and positions the mass public as a forgotten yet important party during cyber conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though radical right parties are easily identified by their strong nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, significant confusion surrounds their positions on core economic issues, such as taxation and redistribution. This uncertainty may reflect an electoral strategy in which these parties intentionally blur their positions to avoid taking stances on economic issues that divide their target constituencies. Existing research on position blurring and the radical right focuses exclusively on expert surveys and party manifesto statements, providing little information about voter-level perceptions of these parties. This study directly investigates public perception of the positions of the Danish People's Party, one of the most successful radical right parties in Europe. The study finds strong evidence that the DPP draws on a voter base with below average political awareness, allowing it to more easily recruit voters on opposing sides of economic issues by obscuring its own positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the limited research on gender agreement processing of complex syntactic structures in the auditory modality. By examining learners at varying stages of second language (L2) development, we aim to identify the linguistic factors that facilitate this process. First language English – second language Spanish learners listened to temporarily ambiguous Spanish sentences containing relative clauses. In each case, the ambiguity could be resolved through gender agreement between an adjective and one of two competing nouns with gender mismatches. We assessed participant accuracy through aural comprehension questions. Our findings indicate that determiners and proficiency impact learners’ accuracy in the task. Specifically, they highlight the role of determiners in gender agreement processing in the absence of duplications as well as the impact of proficiency on the processing of noun endings with marked feminine gender. Additionally, we identify a pattern of increased accuracy in gender agreement processing in high attachment cases. We argue that this pattern challenges first language (L1) transfer assumptions and provides evidence of a ‘good enough’ processing strategy. This strategy relies on syntactic hierarchy and emerges as a response to complex task demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]