Syntactical Ambiguity

Constituent Structure:
Constituent is a word, phrase (or) clause forming part of a larger grammatical
construction.
The word “Constituent” refers a structural unit of a definable syntactic, semantic (or)
phonological category that consists of one (or) more linguistic elements (such as words,
morphemes, or features) and that can occur as a component of larger construction.
Ambiguity: It gives more than one meaning.(Or) It may be called simply as double
meaning.
In other words, ambiguity refers as a tergiversation. Ambiguity can be classified into four
types.They are:
a) Lexical Ambiguity
b) Structural Ambiguity
c) Semantic Ambiguity
d) Syntactical Ambiguity
Ambiguity: The ability to have two or more meanings.
Lexical Ambiguity: It refers to the word in the constituent that has more than one
meaning.
For example: Tomwent to the bank. (The word “bank” has two meanings which includes
“the land alongside or sloping down to a river or lake” and “anorganization related to
money”)
He saw her duck. (It has two meanings. One is a water bird and the other is a person who
is easily fooled by)
Structural Ambiguity: An ambiguity which results from the structure of phrase, clause or
sentences. The phrase especially depends upon prepositional phrase. It has different
interpretations and meanings in a structure.
For example: She ate a bowl of popcorn on thecouch (Prepositional phrase).
First meaning: A bowl of popcorn is placed onthe couch. (It can be modified by the noun)
Second meaning: Sitting on the couch and was eatinga bowl of popcorn. (It can be
modified by theverb.)Prepositional phrase normally makes the ambiguous structure
because either it can be modified by thenoun or it can be modified by the verb.
Exercise for structural ambiguity: The boy saw a man with a telescope. First meaning:
That man has a telescope. Second meaning: The boy saw a man through using the
telescope.
Semantic Ambiguity: When a particular word has two different interpretations.
 Semantics is the study of meaning of words, phrases and sentences, signs and symbols.
These are all do contain various meanings. It has not only one particular meaning. But it
has more than one meaning or multiple meanings.
Syntactical Ambiguity: Syntax is the study of grammatical arrangement of statements or
sentences. The ambiguity in the sentence is due to the way in which the words in the
sentence are arranged. So the arrangements of sentences are very difficult in syntactical
ambiguity.
Making the sentences is not possible orvery difficult if the sentence or syntax has.
Examples for syntactical ambiguity:
She watched him paint with enthusiasm.
(It has two meanings or interpretations)
First meaning: It was with enthusiasm that she watched him paint.
Second meaning: what she watched was him painting with enthusiasm.
First one is – she was experiencing the enthusiasm.
And the second one is – she was enthusiastic to see the painting.
Golden rules of disambiguation
If it is direct or having a simple meaning or only one meaning, then that will be clear and
precise.
Always write a minimum of two sentences that disclose the ambiguity that youdetect.
Add no new meaning – bearing elements to what was given in the original sentence [place
information in brackets – like the ones in this sentence – when it is impossible not to add at
least some contextual information]
Make sure none of the resulting sentences reintroduce the ambiguity that was present in
the original sentence.
Make sure that none of the resulting sentences contain any ambiguity of any type.
Why is eliminating ambiguity essential?
We cannot understand the intended meaning of a sentence if it is ambiguous.
1. When two or more possible meanings are present in a sentence, that means “different
claims are bring made”, and that means that different “truth-values” are possible
2. Ambiguity can be exploited in arguments to derive unwarranted conclusions. When this
is done, we call it ”the fallacy of equivocation”