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1、On English AmbiguityOutline1. Introduction 2. Theoretical Background3. Classification of Ambiguity3.1 Phonological Ambiguity3.1.1 Intonation3.1.2 Liaison3.1.3 Homophony3.2 Lexical Ambiguity3.2.1 P olysemy3.2.2 Homonymy3.2.3 Historical Change3.2.4 Dialectical Differences 3.3 Syntactic Ambiguity3.3.1
2、Multiple Constituent Structures3.3.2 Multiple Syntactic Functions3.3.3 Ellipsis3.4 Pragmatic Ambiguity4. Approaches of Disambiguity4.1 Adoption of Stress and Pause4.2 Addition of Context4.3 Utilization of Syntactic Structures4.3.1 A lteration of Phrasal Order4.3.2 Reorganization of Sentence4.3.3 A d
3、dition of Omitted Constituents4.4 Replacement of Ambiguous Words4.5 Utilization of Punctuation Marks5. ConclusionAbstract: This paper mainly expounds the reasons of phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic ambiguity, and puts forward five approaches of disambiguity in English: adoption of stre
4、ss and pause, addition of language context, utilization of syntactic structure, replacement of words and utilization of punctuation marks.Key words: ambiguity; reasons; disambiguity; approaches论英语中的歧义现象 摘要： 本文从语音、词汇、句法以及语用四大因素入手，分析了英语中歧义句产生的原因；并在此基础上详细阐述了五种消歧的方法：运用重读、增设语境、利用句法结构、替代词语、利用标点符号。关键词： 歧义；
5、原因；消歧；方法1. Introduction Ambiguity is a subtle but pervasive phenomenon in English. But as to what is ambiguity there are many versions. Chomsky hold that ambiguity occurs when an expression_r_r_r has grammatical structure and is semantically relational but its deep structure can be interpreted in tw
6、o or more ways (1965:25). Yang Ping proposed that ambiguity is with various understandings or multi-meaning (2001:38). Cann stated “A sentence is said to be ambiguous whenever it can be associated with two or more different meanings.” (1993:8) All in all, ambiguity refers to the phenomenon that an e
7、quivocal sentence or expression_r_r_r can be understood in more than one way. On the basis of different definitions, the paper focuses on four perspectives: phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic ambiguity. Since ambiguity is a fundamental problem of language comprehension and an obstacle of
8、 communication, efforts are made into and attention is paid to the resolution of ambiguity so as to achieve successful and effective communication.2. Theoretical BackgroundResearches on English ambiguity can be traced far back to Greece, when Aristotle, a well-known philosopher and thinker discussed
9、 ambiguity in his De Sophistics Elenchis. He pointed out the sophistry caused by language had six sources, among which is ambiguity (1958:257). Since then many western scholars showed interest in the topic. Empson published Seven Types of Ambiguity in 1930, and discussed ambiguity in a literary view
10、 and pointed out that interpreting ambiguity was the basic task of semantics (1930:78). The generative grammar about deep structure and surface structure by Chomsky gave a forceful explanation to ambiguous structure. Ambiguity in Natural Language by Kooij is a great contribution to the study of ambi
11、guity as well as the psycholinguistics. Hallidays functional grammar focused on the function of language by insisting that language structure should be explained in the process of its use (1985:19). And Sus Lexical Ambiguity in Poetry mentioned that the study of ambiguity must be placed in the conte
12、xt of language use.From the above, we find, though ambiguity has been discussed in various linguistic fields, its study just focused on one kind of ambiguity. This paper will analyze ambiguity in five parts: Part One will introduce various definitions of ambiguity; Part Two will review the history o
13、f ambiguity; Part Three will classify ambiguity into phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic level; Part Four will discuss approaches of disambiguity; and Part Five is the conclusion. Next, the classification of ambiguity will be analyzed.3. Classification of AmbiguityAmbiguity appears both i
14、n spoken and written English. The classification of ambiguity will be analyzed at phonological level in oral English and at lexical, syntactic, pragmatic level in written English.3.1 Phonological Ambiguity Phonological ambiguity occurs in oral English. When an expression_r_r_r is read with different
15、 intonations, it tends to be ambiguous. In addition, liaison and homophony are also the factors that result in ambiguity in spoken English.3.1.1 IntonationAs a musical element of an utterance, intonation is often defined as the variation (or the general movement) of the pitch of the voice in connect
16、ed speech (Yu Hui 2001:23). In oral English, sentences convey different information because of intonation placements, thus ambiguity occurs. Consider the following example: (1) a. She has two classmates in Beijing.b. SHE has two classmates in Beijing.c. She has TWO classmates in Beijing.d. She has t
17、wo CLASSMATES in Beijing.e. She has two classmates in BEIJING.Sentence ( 1a) can be interpreted in four ways with stress on four words. When the stress is on the word “she”, it means that “It is she who has two classmates in Beijing”; when on “two”, it implies that “she has only two classmates in Be
18、ijing, no more or no less”; when on “classmates”, it indicates that “she has two classmates not sisters or brothers or relatives in Beijing”; when on “Beijing”, it indicates “she has two classmates in Beijing not in Shenzhen or other places”. Therefore, when this sentence is read with different plac
19、ements of stress, different interpretations or implicatures will be obtained.3.1.2 Liaison Liaison is the link of sounds or words. In a speech, each sound of word should be linked smoothly and naturally. On the other hand, liaison triggers ambiguity just because it makes words homonymous. For exampl
20、e: (2) a. I see a /greiteip/b. I see a grey tapec. I see a grate ape In Example ( 2a), the phonetic symbol /greiteip/ represents two different written forms: “grate ape” and “grey tape”. Although (2b) and ( 2c) share the same pronunciation, their meanings are different.3.1.3 Homophony Homophones are
21、 words identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning, such as “I/eye”, “see/sea”, “dear/deer”, “tail/tale” and so on. Homophones will cause confusion of words understanding. Let us take a look at the following example. (3) The mathematics professor noticed that one of his students was day
22、-dreaming, and not following his work in the blackboard, to recall his attention, he said sharply, “Brown, Brown, board!” The boy startled, looked up. “Yes, sir, very.” came the reply. “Board” and “bored” have the same phonological form /bo:d/. The professor wanted Brown to look at the blackboard, b
23、ut Brown woke up from his dream and didnt catch his professor, so he answered immediately “Yes, sir, very”. Brown misunderstood his teacher by replying the mathematical class was boring.3.2 Lexical Ambiguity Semantic ambiguity relates to the ambiguous meaning of words or sentences. The paper just an
24、alyzes lexical ambiguity. Most of lexical ambiguity is caused by polysemy and homonymy. In addition, historical change and dialectical difference also trigger lexical ambiguity.3.2.1 P olysemy Polysemy is the phenomenon that words are associated with at least two meanings. Example is the word “head”
25、, which refers to the object on the top of our body, on the top of a glass of beer, on the top of a company or department. Though polysemy has many interpretations, just only one is maintained in a certain context. If two interpretations of the same word can be both adopted in a sentence, ambiguity
26、occurs. For example: (4) He was seated by the chairman. The different understanding of the word “by” will lead to ambiguity. If it is understood as “by the side of”, this sentences meaning is “He seated by the side of the chairman”. But if word “by” is understood as a preposition, the sentence means
27、 “The chairman let him sit down”.3.2.2 Homonymy Homonyms are words with the same pronunciation and written forms, but with distinct and unrelated meanings. Examples are the words like “punch” (a blow with a fist or a drink); “mole” (on skin or a small animal). Look at the following sentence: (5) a.
28、He went to the bank yesterday.b. He went to a financial institution where deals with money yesterday.c. He went to a riverside yesterday.Sentence ( 5a) is ambiguous since the word “bank” in Sentence ( 5a) has two unrelated meanings: “a financial institution” in (5b) and “a riverside” in ( 5c).3 .2.3
29、 Historical Change With the development of our nature and society, scientific technology specially, great changes have happened in the meaning of the words. In the past decades, new terms like “AIDS”, “Coke”, “guided missile” have come into being; on the other hand, words disappeared once they lost
30、the favor of the speech community, such as “fain”(gladly), “beseem”(to be suitable), “wot”(to know) and so on. Look at the following example: (6) Only some of the visitors gained admittance into the clean room.In Sentence (6), “clean room” means “a room without dirt in our daily life”. But now it is
31、 also considered as “a room which frees from impurities completely where is used to produce elaborate accessories”. If the addressee doesnt know the new meaning of “clean room”, misunderstanding will occur.Similar lexical ambiguity can also be seen in the word “mouse”, which can be interpreted as an
32、 animal in our daily life and a small hand-held device that is moved across a desk-top as a term in computer field.3.2.4 Dialectical Differences The difference in history, geography, polity, economy and cultural background between England and America is also reflected in their languages, especially
33、in lexicon. Some words may lead to ambiguity as they express different concepts in British and American English. For example: (7) NO GAS TODAY In American English, “gas” represents coal gas and gasoline, while in British English, it just means coal gas, and gasoline should be substituted by petrol.
34、(8) A: Excuse me, which floor is the office on? B: The office is on the first floor. Sentence (8) is another ambiguous example caused by dialectical difference. If A is a British, he will understand it as “The office is on the floor above ground level”; but if he is an American, he will go to the fl
35、oor on ground level.3.3 Syntactic Ambiguity“Syntactic ambiguity attains in those sentences in which strings of words can be grouped in different ways or in which words can have different grammatical functions depending on the inferred relations among them” (Hu Zhuanglin 2001:205). There are three ca
36、uses of syntactic ambiguity: multiple constituent structures, multiple syntactic roles and ellipsis.3.3.1 Multiple Constituent StructuresIn analyzing the structure of sentences and phrases, we know that sentences or phrases are composed of constituents. “A sentence does not only have a linear struct
37、ure, consisting of individual words one after another in a line; they also have a hierarchical structure, made up of layers of word group” ( Hu zhuanglin 2001:122). Sometimes the same linear order of constituents corresponds to more than one constituent structure, which is a potential cause of synta
38、ctic ambiguity. Look at the following example:( 9a) I bought a present to my sister in Beijing.Sentence ( 9a) is ambiguous since it has more than one possible interpretation. The ambiguity arises from the fact that the string of words has more than one possible constituent structure. We can bracket
39、this sentence in different ways to indicate the different constituent structures:(9) b. I bought a present to my sister in Beijing c. I bought a present to my sister in Beijing Sentence ( 9a) can be paraphrased as “It was to my sister in Beijing that I bought a present”; Sentence (9b) can be paraphr
40、ased as “It was in Beijing where I bought a present to my sister”.3.3.2 Multiple Syntactic FunctionsSuch ambiguity comes from the fact that a sentence element may play more than one syntactic role in a sentence. Considering the following sentence: (10) I came across Alice in the street. If “in the s
41、treet” functions as locative adverbial, Sentence (10) is interpreted as “I came across Alice and we were both in the street”; if “in the street” serves as the complement of the object “ Alice”, it is interpreted as “I came across Alice who was in the street and I need not have been in the street”. (
42、11) Go and ask the Dean who will teach us English. In Example (11), if we regard who-clause as an objective clause, it means “the dean will not be our English teacher”; but if the phrase “Go and ask” serves as the attributive of dean, the sentence means “the dean will be our English teacher”.3.3.3 E
43、llipsisAs a grammatical device for preventing repetition and achieving textual cohesion, ellipsis means the omission of elements that would be expected in a correct sentence or phrase, take the following sentences for example: (12) They are four. (13) Ask whom you like. (14) Tell her if she is at ho
44、me Ill call to see her.Examples (12-14) are different syntactic ambiguity. Sentence (12) omits nouns, such as people, years, etc. then different interpretations appear, they are four people, they are four years old and so on. Sentence (13) omits the verb “to ask”, as a result two different meanings
45、occur “Ask whom you like to ask” and “Ask whom you are fond of”. In Sentence (14), “that” can be put before “if” or after “home”.3.4 Pragmatic Ambiguity Pragmatic ambiguity refers to the fact that a linguistic form contains one or more than one implicative meaning besides the literal ones. In most c
46、ases, pragmatic ambiguity is produced intentionally by the speaker or the writer in order to achieve rhetoric effects. Pragmatic ambiguity arises from multiple forces.Force, or illocutionary force, is equivalent to contextual meaning ( Hu zhuanglin 2001:251). We employ Speech Act Theory to explain how contextual meanings arise at pragmatic level. Speech Act Theory is the first major theory in the study of language in use, which originated with the Oxford philosopher Austin. There are three acts being practiced at the same time in a speech: locutionary act, illocutionary act and