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EDL3205 SEMANTICS FOR ELT
COMPILED BY FARRAH DIEBAA RASHID ALI
1
WEEK SEVEN
AMBIGUITY AND VAGUENESS
AMBIGUOUS MEANINGS OF UTTERANCES
Reading:
Kempson, M. (1989)Semantics Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press [123-
138]
1. Both words and sentences can have more than one meaning.a.
Flying planes can be dangerousb. We saw her duckc. She has good
legs
2. Four types of vaguenessNo. Description
1. Where the meaning of the lexical item is in principle clear
enough but it may be hard
to decide whether or not the item can be applied to certain
objects.
When is a mountain not a mountain but merely a hill? When is a
forest not a forest but a wood?
What crucially distinguishes a house from a cottage? What is the
different between city and town? City bigger than town? Town can be
small or large, but a city is by definition large.
2. Where the meaning itself of an item seems intangible or
indeterminate.
Johns book, Johns train, Johns sheets. Johns book The book John
wrote, The book he owns, the book he is reading,
the book he has been told to read or the book he was carrying
when he came
into the room.
Johns train p.125 Johns sheet p.125
3. Where the meaning is clear but is only generally
specified.
Neighbour unspecified gender, race, age etc. Do Ive done the
sitting room, to do the engine, to do the dishes, to do the
cupboard.
4. Where the meaning involves an either-or statement of
different interpretation
7/28/2019 Semantics Week Seven
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EDL3205 SEMANTICS FOR ELT
COMPILED BY FARRAH DIEBAA RASHID ALI
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possibilities.
The applicants for the job either had a first-class degree or
some teachingexperience.
P. 128 for example
AMBIGUITY TEST
1. QUESTION: How to distinguish ambiguous sentence from those
which are not?ANSWER: Anaphoric Processes
a. Processes which refer back to an earlier part of the
sentence.b. One example: the expression to do so too.
i. This is used where the action described has already been
specifiedand is being referred to again.
ii. E.g. John hit Bill and Jason did to. / Johnny saw her duck
and Will didso too.
iii. Demands identity of meaning of the two verb phrases in
question.iv. Test of ambiguity: If some verb phrase is two-way
ambiguous, then
we can predict that when it is conjoined to do so or other verb
phrase
pro-form expression, the entire sentence will be two ways
ambiguous.
v. In both of the two representations of the sentences meaning,
the pro -form expression will always be identical to it =
ambiguous
vi. Read p.130 for example.
AMBIGUITY AND NEGATION
1.
SCOPE OF NEGATION: Those elements to which the negative elements
is applying.2. it wasnt a woman that came to the door
a. The scope of negation is restricted to the condition of
femininity no otherpart of sentence is denied.
3. Negative sentences are not ambiguous with respect to
variations in the scope ofnegation.
