Syntactic Ambiguity Flashcards
What is ambiguity and reasons
Types
What is syntactic ambiguity
Instances ambiguity occurs
Oxford Word Power, 2006
Possibility of being understood in more than one way.
Presence of more than one interpretation
Reasons Word being polysemous The structure of sentences Poor word choice Connotative contexts
2types
Semantic ambiguity - results from words of sentence having multiple senses.
Ex Mahatma Ghandi was stoned in a rally
Stoned - throwing stones/being intoxicated by drugs
Syntactic ambiguity
Cornway 2020
Results when the intended meaning of the sentence is being affected by the intended relationships between the individual words of the sentence.
Results due to the structure of a sentence.
Ex: the chicken is ready
Visiting relatives can be boaring
Taha (1983) introduces 12 types of syntactic ambiguities
1) noun (verb)+ verb (noun)
The college demands change
2) noun+noun+ modifier
The lady with the child who was crying
3) verb +adverb+verb
They were encouraged seriously to study abroad
4) noun+adverb+verb
Her younger brother specially likes to play football
5) noun+noun+personal noun
The son wanted to talk to his dad before he went out
