navi tasan said:
Here, for once, I was paying attention to context! So I thought context would make it clear that the assasination took place in 63.
Well, it's a well-known event, so it would be well-understood that he was talking about the assassination of Kennedy in 1963. (Of course, the discussion could have also taken place in 1963.) I was, in this case, talking about general cases.
Context is, in the case of a word, the surrounding words and in the case of a sentence the surrounding sentences. Context will usually help to dispel any ambiguity.
There are levels of ambiguity. Sometimes reading a sentence will give a person one impression, but further reading will make him realize that his first impression was mistaken.
Possible ambiguity in a sentence is not always a problem. It depends on whether context makes the meaning clear or does not. If you say "He was talking about it in 1968" the conversation seems to have taken place in 1968. If you say "He was talking about Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968" it seems that it was the event under discussion that took place in 1968. However, the conversation itself could have also taken place that year. If you say "Yesterday, he was talking about Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968" you have achieved greater clarity still. In any case, context would probably clear up any possible ambiguity.
