Youtube video showing a scene from the movie kiss kiss, bang bang containing a structural ambiguity. There are two elemental forms in speech and writing. Lexical and structural ambiguity by samaher alharbi on prezi. Ambiguity happens in a sentence which contains more than one meaning. This paper looked at some lexicosemantic concepts that often cause ambiguity in. For example, if we do not know the context, the following sentence can be misu. In particular, the focus ofthe research is on examples of lexical and syntactic ambiguity that result in sources of voluntary or involuntary. Do processes underlying ambiguity resolution result in greater cognitive engagement. In the 1970s and 1980s, when computers became powerful enough to support. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.
Lexical and syntactic ambiguity as a source of humor. But both smaller and larger expressions may exhibit ambiguities. Lexical ambiguity definition and examples thoughtco. Sep 18, 2019 in english grammar, syntactic ambiguity also called structural ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words, as opposed to lexical ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word. Surprisinglylittleresearch on lexical ambiguity has been done utilizing brain imaging techniques such as fmri. If in a sentence or clause, then it is grammatical or structural ambiguity. It differs from syntactic ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within. Pdf lexical and structural ambiguity found in articles in the. Lexical and structural ambiguity ambiguity syntax scribd. The boy saw the man with the telescope is an example of structural ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity is sometimes used deliberately to create puns and other types. Structural ambiguity and lexical relations acl anthology. Section 2 of this chapter discusses the nature of ambiguity in its relation to real world, its position in linguistics and literary criticism, its. Here is a short and entertaining podcast that illustrates the phenomenon of lexical ambiguity.
Difference between lexical and structural ambiguity compare the. Being rational, human beings can overcome miscommunication caused by. Pdf lexical and syntactic ambiguity in humor danin. The present study examines linguistic ambiguity of one specific type, where it is a source of humor, and in one specific register, newspaper headlines. However, sometimes ambiguity is used deliberately to add humor to a text. A sample of np heads, preceding verbs, and following prepositions derived. The study is based on a corpus of 5 verbally ambiguous headlines found on web sites presenting humorous bits of. See the glossary entry on scope ambiguity here is a short and entertaining podcast that illustrates the phenomenon of lexical ambiguity. Structural or syntactic ambiguity, occurs when a phrase, clause or sentence can be given two or.
Aug 17, 20 this video lecture is a part of the course an introduction to english linguistics at the university of neuchatel. In fact, the word ambiguity is rooted in latin, meaning wandering about. Provide definitions for two of the meanings of the words. Lexical ambiguity occurs when a word has more than one possible meanings. What little we know of the brain activity during the processing of lexical ambiguities in context comes from only a tiny number of studies e. Lexical and structural mismatches at the start of the previous section we said that, in the best of all possible worlds for nlp, every word would have exactly one sense. Semantic interpretation and ambiguity graeme hirst department of computer science, university of toronto, toronto, canada m5s 1a4. In english grammar, syntactic ambiguity also called structural ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single sentence or sequence of words, as opposed to lexical ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a single word. It differs from syntactic ambiguity, which is the presence of two or more possible meanings within a sentence or sequence of words.
It is still under debate whether this type of ambiguity is a form of syntactic or lexical ambiguity,or whether it represents a unique class of ambiguity. A little reflection should make it evident that lexical ambiguity is extremely widespread in english. The former represents a choice between a finite number of known and meaningful context dependent interpretations. The word hard, for example, can mean not soft or difficult. Dec 03, 2016 ambiguity is the quality of having more than one interpretation. The following is a partial list of linguistic example sentences illustrating various linguistic phenomena. Difference between lexical and structural ambiguity compare. Ambiguity a linguistic universal, common to all languages due to the arbitrariness of the relations between the sign and its meaning. This chapter discusses ambiguity with a focus on the severity of the problem in the field of nlp. Mar 10, 2015 semantic and syntactic ambiguity march 10, 2015 titivillus logic jan sanders cartoons, logic, logical fallacies today i want to talk about two different kinds of ambiguity and i want to explain how each of these different kinds of ambiguity can give rise to fallacies. Lexical ambiguity according to hurford and heasley 128 is any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of a word.
In section 3, i describe the polaroid word system for lexical disambiguation, and. It would be easy to continue citing many more examples, but it should not be necessary. Structural ambiguity and lexical relations citeseerx. Lexical ambiguity applies to a word that has two or more meanings and is used in a way that creates unintended, or intended, confusion as with puns or plays on words. Pdf structural ambiguity and lexical relations donald. As the reference for people who are interested in analyzing lexical and structural ambiguity in their research later. Given below are some examples of lexical ambiguity. In particular, the focus of the research is on examples of lexical and structural ambiguity that result in seemingly involuntary humor. Typically, it is best to avoid ambiguity in your writing. This extends from ambiguous sentences which could mean one thing or another up to ambiguous storylines and ambiguous arguments. Syntactic ambiguity has three names grammatical, structural or syntactic ambiguity.
The analysis of lexica l and structural ambiguity in your letters of the jakarta post, 2009. The examples given so far have all been lexical that is, words with more than one denotation. Structural or syntactic ambiguity, occurs when a phrase, clause or sentence can be given two or more different interpretations as a result of the arrangement of words or lexical units. Lexical ambiguity and the reordered access model duration. Distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure is called structural ambiguity. For example in the sentence the captain corrected the list is lexically ambiguous. Youtube video showing a scene from the movie kiss kiss, bang bang containing a structural ambiguity scope ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity is sometimes used deliberately to create pun and other wordplays.
The latter represents a choice between any number of possible interpretations, none of which may have a standard agreedupon meaning. Ambiguity can be caused by the ambiguous lexicon in which a word has more than one meaning and it can also be caused by the syntactic structure. This paper sets out some of the linguistic ambiguities for both syntactic and lexical provided with examples for each. Lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings for a single word. Pdf lexical sources of ambiguity in english and daily. Structural ambiguity it can be said that the difference between the two term homonymy and polysemy is that homonyms are words without any semantic connection such as bear an animal and bear carry, while polysemy is based on a metaphorical extension which means that the two. Different types of ambiguity which are possible in language. Lexical ambiguity means that the word or term has more than one meaning. Genuine ambiguities, where a sentence really can have two different meanings to an intelligent hearer, and computer ambiguities, where the meaning is entirely clear to a hearer but a computer detects more than one meaning. In section 2, i will describe this approach to semantic interpretation. Ambiguity, as we all know, means double or multiple meaning, and it is customary to distinguish two kinds lexical and structural ambiguity. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
Jul 12, 2019 lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more possible meanings for a single word. Meanings other than the ultimate meaning may be accessed along the way implications. When you make statements that are ambiguous, you confuse the reader and hinder the meaning of the text. Taha 1983 follows stageberg and claims that structural or syntactic ambi. Lexical ambiguity is contrasted with semantic ambiguity. For example, the word bank has two meanings either a financial institute or the land alongside the river.
Notes on ambiguity there are two types of ambiguity. Incongruity garden path effects can be played with for attentiongrabbing purposes. This quiz will help you gauge your knowledge of lexical ambiguity with questions about what it is and. There are two types of ambiguity, lexical and structural. Kuno, 1965, much of the structural ambiguity of the sentence stems from the partofspeech ambiguity of the words time, flies, and like, which in turn reflects their semantic ambiguity. In sum, the problem of lexical ambiguity can indeed serve as a touchstone by which theories of language analysis can be assessed. Semantic and syntactic ambiguity march 10, 2015 titivillus logic jan sanders cartoons, logic, logical fallacies today i want to talk about two different kinds of ambiguity and i want to explain how each of these different kinds of ambiguity can give rise to fallacies. Ambiguity can be classified into two different categories named lexical and structural ambiguity. What is lexical ambiguity and what are some examples.
Ambiguity occurs when a sentence or an expression has more than one possible meaning. Both lexical and structural ambiguity generally result in longer processing times. As a human, when you read a text that contains the word bank, yo. Ambiguity is when the meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence is uncertain. Structural ambiguity, on the other hand, occurs when a phrase or a sentence has more than one. Lexical ambiguity presents two or more possible meanings within a single word. Pdf this study aims at finding out lexical and structural ambiguity. Ambiguity, vagueness, generality nonspecificity, etc. Table h a sample of the verb nounpreposition table.
Its often viewed in a negative light, since we value clarity in writing and ambiguity is the. Computational linguistics, volume 19, number 1, march 1993, special issue on using large corpora. In particular, the focus of the research is on examples of lexical and syntactic ambiguity that result in sources of voluntary or involuntary humor. The word list has two possible meanings, either record short pieces of information, such as peoples name or lean in a ship. The study is based on a corpus of 5 verbally ambiguous headlines found on web sites presenting humorous bits of information. For instance, the word bank has several distinct lexical definitions, including financial institution and edge of a river. Stageberg distinguishes between lexical ambiguity, syntactic ambiguity i. Lexical relations lexical ambiguity publish your masters. Lexical ambiguity comes into being when two or more of the meanings of a word are applicable in a given situation. A word, phrase, or a sentence becomes ambiguous if it can be interpreted with more than one meaning.
This is session 8, in which i talk about valency, lexical ambiguity, structural. Meaning here refers to whatever should be captured by a good dictionary. Lexical ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentences has more than one basic structure so it produces more than one way to understand, even if the individual words of the expression are not lexically ambiguous. Pdf lexical and structural ambiguity in humorous headlines. Tree diagram a tree diagram is a way of representing the hierarchical nature of a structure in a graphical form. As i understand it, there is structural ambiguity, which is syntactic, and lexical ambiguity, which depends on individual word meanings. Syntactic ambiguity is likewise very common, though perhaps not as obvious.
If the ambiguity is in a single word it is lexical ambiguity. Jul 17, 2014 distinct underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep structure is called structural ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity, which is so common, indicates that the word itself has more than one meaning. Can advertising take advantage of these temporarily encoded meanings. Structural ambiguity and lexical relations article pdf available in computational linguistics 191 may 2002 with 105 reads how we measure reads. The presence of two or more possible meanings for one single sentence or a sequence of words.
The paper analyzes some forms of linguistic ambiguity in english in a specific register, i. Metaphorical ambiguity the ambiguity that some phrases and sentences exhibit. The phrase old men and women is a structural ambiguity in which whether the old men and old women are examined by the doctor or the old men and women of any age only. For a particular language, this information is provided by grammar, which systematically pairs forms with meanings, ambiguous forms with more than one meaning. Lexical and structural ambiguity free download as powerpoint presentation. Sentences includedifferent sources of ambiguity such as, structural ambiguity, and lexical ambiguity. It is the phenomenon in which the same sequence of words has two or meanings that is accounted for by. Exercise sheet ambiguity lexical resource semantics. Lexical ambiguity confuses the reader and makes it difficult to understand an authors intent. It is useful to recognize that syntactic ambiguity does not result from just the ordering of the words in the ambiguous structure. What are some example sentences of lexical ambiguity. Most studies differentiate between lexical and structural ambiguity, with the former referring to ambiguity conveyed through polysemous wordshomophonous strings and the latter to phenomena of ambiguous word order, referential ambiguity, prepositional phrase attachment e.
Lexical and structural ambiguity examples uk essays. The subjects were asked totranslate the sentences into indonesian language. It would be a better world, but not the best of all possible worlds, because we would still be faced with difficult translation problems. The ambiguity typically results from the fact that words can mean different things. While this is true for most nlp, it is an exaggeration as regards mt. Ambiguity pronounced ambihgyooihtee is an idea or situation that can be understood in more than one way. Lexical ambiguity is the potential for multiple interpretations of spoken or written language that renders it difficult or impossible to understand without some additional information. Section 2 of this chapter discusses the nature of ambiguity in its relation to real world, its position in linguistics and literary criticism, its genesis, its contrasts, its types and its levels.
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