Fallacy
Innuendo
Also known as: Dog Whistle
- Category
- Fallacy
- Main group
- Informal Fallacy
- Subgroup
- Rhetorical Tactic
- Difficulty
- medium (2/3)
- Argumentation order
- 1. Argument
Description
A rhetorical tactic in which ambiguous wording is used to generate associations in the listener that point in a certain direction.
The actual message is conveyed between the lines. Upon criticism, the speaker can always claim they didn't mean it that way.
Example
"Soap and water never hurt anyone."
> Implying that the other person should wash themselves.
- Limitations
Context-dependent! Changing the context changes the meaning.
Positive aspect: An important stylistic device in literature, satire, or advertising to evoke associations or create irony.
- Researched by
Franz Januschek
- See also
Framing
Ambiguity