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moridinamael comments on The value of ambiguous speech - Less Wrong Discussion
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I feel like this is almost a degenerate-case explanation, but perhaps the primary application of ambiguity is brevity.
The Persian king threatens, "If we win this war, we will kill all your men and enslave your women."
The Laconian king answers, "If."
The Persian king says, "I'm not sure what you mean by that."
The Laconian king says: "Like, 'If you win.'"
The Persian king says: "'If you win' what? Like I said, if we win, we'll kill you and enslave your women."
The Laconian king says: "Right. If you win."
The Persian king says: "I'm so confused."
The Laconian king says: "I'm emphasizing the use of 'if' to draw attention to the idea that I don't plan to let you win."
The Persian king says: "Ohhhh oh I get it. Okay, yeah, that's pretty good. Scribe, blot out everything after he said 'If.'"
As much as I like perfect clarity, brevity does have its uses. When I was reading Atlas Shrugged, I cringed every time a character replied to a comment with "I know it" instead of the normal "I know."
Note that ithkuil(the constructed language we were talking about in that thread) aims for both clarity and brevity.