Punctuation ambiguity is a type of
ambiguity used almost exclusively in
hypnosis and any field making use of the technologies of
Neurolinguistic Programming.
It was identified by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as a hypnotic technique used by hypnotist Milton H. Erickson in their book "Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD" Volume I.
Punctuation ambiguity is when two well-formed sentences are overlapped, as in the following example:
I want you to notice your hand me the glass
Surface structure I: I want you to notice your hand.
Surface structure II: Hand me the glass.
The two sentences are joined by a phonologically ambiguous word, in this case hand.
Bandler and Grinder noticed that using this type of linguistic pattern with a hypnosis patient almost always resulted in one of two things: "the client... either responds immediately to the command given or stops processing with the normal linguistic processes almost immediately."
Source:
Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume I by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. Meta Publications, 1975.