Lexical Ambiguity in Knives Out (2019) Movie: A Semantics Analysis

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze lexical ambiguity and the dimensions of meaning in the Knives Out (2019) movie, focusing on how ambiguous language contributes to the narrative and character interactions. As a mystery film, Knives Out presents various dialogues that involve linguistically creative expressions. Lyons’ theory (1977) on lexical ambiguity, which includes homonymy and polysemy, and Leech’s theory (1981) on seven types of meaning, that are conceptual, connotative, social, affective, reflected, collocative, and thematic meaning, were applied as the main frameworks of analysis. This study employed a descriptive qualitative method by identifying and describing the ambiguous expressions and their meaning in the film. The results show that there are 80 occurrences of lexical ambiguity, with polysemy appearing more frequently than homonymy. Furthermore, all seven types of meaning proposed by Leech were found in the dialogues, showing that meaning in the film is layered and context-dependent. The findings indicate that lexical ambiguity in Knives Out plays a crucial role in delivering clues, misdirection, and humor, enriching the viewers’ interpretative experience and supporting the film’s genre as a mystery.