lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity in english

7/22/2019 LEXICAL AMBIGUITY AND STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN ENGLISH

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The Differences between Lexical Ambiguity and Structural Ambiguity in English

Language

1.0 Ambiguity

English is always considered as an ambiguous language due to its criterion on having

ambiguous meaning in the language. The word ambiguous here can be define as a word or an

expression that can be understood in two or more possible ways and according to the Oxford

English Dictionary, more than 500 words used in English language have an average of !

different meanings. "or instance, the word #round$ has %0 different meanings and not to

mention other words that may confuse the learner of English language. This type of ambiguity

is &nown as lexical ambiguous and they induce the ambiguity in phrases or even sentences.

'hrases and sentences can also be ambiguous such as the phrase #porcelain egg container$

and this is indentified as structural ambiguous.

These two types of ambiguity will lead to misinterpreted problem and each individual

could interpret a word in several ways as they want to. Thus, a detailed examination on these

problems needs to be distinguished so that the true meaning of the language could be

understood well. The confusion and the vagueness of English language due to these

ambiguities may lead to images of ridiculousness and sometimes it may be the source ofhumour. (ence it will result some confusion to the second language learner to the potential

confusion that can deter their will to learn the natural language.

2.0 Lexical Ambiguity

The most common ambiguity that English language has is lexical ambiguity whereby

a word has more than one meaning )*ach, n.d.+. The most freuent everyday words that be

considered as confusing are nouns such as chip-, penand suit. eanwhile for verbs are

call, draw, and run. The ad/ectives consist of deep, dry and hard. ccording to

*ach )n.d.+, there are various test could be done for ambiguity problem and one of them is by

using the two unrelated antonyms to one ambiguous word. "or example, the word 1hard-, this

has both 1soft- and 1easy- as opposites. nother is the con/unction reduction test. 2onsider the

sentence below3

The tailor pressed one suit in his shop and one in the municipal court.

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4e could see that the word 1suit- is ambiguous and provided by the anomaly of the 1crossed

interpretation- of the sentence. The word 1suit- used in the sentence above could be refer as

article of clothing and 1one- to a legal action.

2ruse )678+, mentioned that there are two types if lexical ambiguity and there are9

homonymy and polysemy. (omonymy referred as one pronunciation with two clearly

different meanings such as these two examples3

i. savings bank

ii. river bank

The word ban& in the first example would carry the meaning of financial institution but the

second example means as the edge of river. eanwhile polysemy is one pronunciation with

two or more distinct but related meanings. "or instance3

i. green book

ii. interesting book

:n these examples, polysemy is about the same as homonymy, they have their own senses in

their own lexical entries. The 1green boo&- is referred to the physical ob/ect that is green in

colour and 1interesting boo&- means as the content of physical ob/ect that is considered as

fascinating.

;ohnson


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(owever, *ach )n.d.+ pointed out that it is not always clear when we have only one

word. The verb 1desert- and the noun 1dessert-, which sound the same but, are spelled

differently count as distinct. This is a clear example of homonymy but what about the noun

1respect- and the verb 1respect- or the preposition 1over- and the ad/ective 1over-> *ach

uestioned either they are the members of these pairs of homonyms or are they different

forms of the same word> Thus, to him there are no general consensus on how to draw and

cases of two homonymous words. 'erhaps the difference is ultimately arbitrary.

3.0 Structural Ambiguity

?tructural ambiguity is one of ambiguity that related to the English grammar and often

derives from the arrangement of words and structures or forms the classification of words

)@orman, n.d.+. *ach )n.d+ defines that structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or a

sentence has more than one underlying structure. The examples of structural ambiguity are as

follow3

i. Tibetan history teacher.

ii. student of high moral principles.

iii. The girl hit the boy with a boo&.

iv. Aisiting relatives can be boring.

ll of these ambiguities can be represented in two structurally different ways, for instance

1BTibetan historyC teacher- and 1Tibetan Bhistory teacherC-. The existence of such ambiguities

provides strong evidence for a level of underlying syntactic structure. 4e should consider the

next structurally ambiguous sentence3

The chicken is ready to eat.

ccording to the sentence, we could it to describe either a hungry chic&en or a broiled

chic&en. :t is arguable that the operative reading depends on whether or not the implicit

sub/ect of the infinitive clause 1to eat9 is tied anaphoric ally to the sub/ect #the chic&en$ of the

main clause.

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Are you saing more than you did last year!

=oo&ing at the sentence above, this can be seen as the genuine structural ambiguity

because the word 1more- may be classified as an adverbial meaning that is #to a greater

extent$ or a nominal meaning #a greater amount.$ Despite with the ambiguity, yet there is no

misunderstanding of the sentence. @orman )n.d.+ added that the grammatical situation would

determine the ambiguity and he also stated that most of the structural ambiguity that we are

dealing is in written language only, and some will be found in clear spo&en language. Each

situation is potentially, not necessarily, ambiguous and sometimes the ambiguity can only

occur under specific grammatical reactions. t the other times the meanings of the words or

the enclosing context will forestall ambiguity.

(ere are some examples that involving the 1


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Therefore, it is structural ambiguous. (ence the ambiguity is merely apparent and better

described as a semantic under determination.

eferences

*ach. F., )n.d.+.,Ambuity in #nglish language. etrieved on 0th@ovember 0! in

http3GGonline.sfsu.eduG&bachGambguity.html

@orman. 2., )n.d.+., $tructural ambiguity for #nglish teachers.@ew Hor& 3 Iniversity

of @orthern :owa 'ublisher

;ohnson. =., )678+.,A study in linguistic semantics. lbany 3 ?tate Iniversity of

@ew Hor& 'ress

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http://online.sfsu.edu/kbach/ambguity.htmlhttp://online.sfsu.edu/kbach/ambguity.html

lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity in english

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