ABSTRACT
In this paper I want to suggest that behind Empson's seven types of ambiguity there lurks an eighth-ambiguity between intended and achieved meaning. I shall illustrate some of its effects, and I hope to show that a recognition of its presence is an important part of the interpretation of literary texts. If I am right, it is wrong to fall into the intentional fallacy (which in its extremer forms is indeed a fallacy), but it is equally wrong to relapse into the misplaced scepticism of its opponents. It is in the interplay between intended and unintended that interpretation finds most work to be done. Since I am adding yet another item to the long series of articles on meaning and intention in literature I shall have to begin with a few remarks on the present state of play in this controversy.
