Ambiguity

Last night over dinner I said to my wife:

whatever happens today tomorrow is gone

I intended this to mean that the events of today are over by tomorrow, as tomorrow is a new day. In other words, I intended it to have the following structure, with whatever happens today as the subject of is gone and tomorrow as an adverb of time:

[whatever happens today]S [tomorrow]Adv is gone

However, my wife misunderstood it, as she took it to mean that, regardless of the events of today, tomorrow is hopeless. So she interpreted whatever happens today as an adverb clause and tomorrow as the subject of is gone:

[whatever happens today]AdvCl [tomorrow]S is gone

In fact, both these interpretations are possible, as the utterance is ambiguous.

We should always try to avoid ambiguity in what we say and write. Of course, this is difficult when speaking, because we do not usually have much opportunity to plan things; but in writing, we should keep a sharp lookout for anything that might be misinterpreted, and we should rephrase it wherever necessary. In this case, it would have been better to say:

whatever happens today is gone by tomorrow

That is how I would have stated it if I had had the chance to plan the utterance properly.