May 2006, Volume 4, No.5 (Serial No.32) US-China Foreign Language, ISSN1539-8080, US A

51

A Brief Study of Factors Causing Ambiguity and Disambiguation

Qun Ren* Huaiyin Teachers College

Abstract: In English language, it is easy to confront ambiguity, which usually causes obstacle. There are many factors that might result in ambiguity, such as phonological, lexical, syntactical, pragmatic factors etc. Although it may seem difficult to avoid ambiguity, English learners can settle the problem if they take context into account.

Key words: ambiguity factors disambiguation In language, limited sounds are interwoven to form colorful words satisfying our communicational needs.

Then appear homophones in large quantities. On the other hand, comparatively limited grammatical rules and structures are repeatedly organized to form numerous phrases, sentences, causing different semantic relations. These make it possible that ambiguity comes into being in language.

As the above linguistic facts show, ambiguity, undoubtedly, is unavoidable. Joseph F. Kess and Ronald A. Hoppe have pointed in their book Ambiguity in Psycholinguistics that upon careful consideration, one cannot but be amazed at the ubiquity of ambiguity in language. It causes obstacle because of distortion and misunderstanding during the process of transmitting the information. To make a smooth communication, it’s better to know what causes ambiguity and how to accomplish disambiguation.

1. Factors Leading to English Ambiguity

It should be admitted that many factors might lead to English ambiguity. Modern linguists tend to believe that English ambiguity is embodied in four aspects in terms of linguistics. i.e., phonology, lexicology, syntax and pragmatics.

1.1 Phonological factor Here it refers to the juncture, one of the phonological terminologies, the transition from one sound to another

in speech. When people speak, one phoneme glides to another one, during which different combinations are produced, leading to different meanings. For example,

My younger brother had a / greidei / The sentence can be heard in two different ways (a) My younger brother had a grade A. (b) My younger brother had a gray day. During the communication, although the ambiguity caused by different junctures is not easily eliminated,

proper stop can be used to make clear what the speaker wants to express. 1.2 Lexical factors (1) Polysemy Once a word, which has more than one meaning, appears in the sentence, ambiguity tends to happen. It is

also called polysemy, which may exist in nouns, verbs, adjectives etc., for example,

* Qun Ren(1973- ), female, lecturer of College English Department, Huaiyin Teachers College; Research field: applied linguistics; Address: College English Department, Huaiyin Teachers College, No.71, Jiaotong Road, Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, P.R.China; Postcode: 223001.

A Brief Study of Factors Causing Ambiguity and Disambiguation

52

(A) I went to the bank. bank (a) land sloping up along side of a river or canal

(b) establishment for keeping money, valuables (B) She couldn’t bear children. bear (a) endure (sth); tolerate; stand;

(b) give birth to The italic words in the two sentences (A), (B) mentioned above have more than one meaning, so there is

more than one way to explain them. To figure out the exact meanings of such words, it demands language-learners’ careful consideration of specific context. Especially, when reading the books on literature, it requires more attention on the purpose of the author as well as the communicational situation. Only in this way can language-learners do a good job in disambiguation.

(2) Parts of speech If a word can be used as different parts of speech, we always call it a multifunctional word. The sentence

containing such words easily presents different deeper structures, then causing different comprehensions, i.e. (A) The doctor saw the Indian dance. Indian (a) adj. “Indian” modifies “dance”

(b) n. “Indian” refers to “a specific person” In English, present or past participles are always confused with adjectives, verbs, which then cause ambiguity, i.e. (B) She is calculating. Functioning as “present participle”, “calculating” means “working out by using numbers or one’s judgment”.

The sentence describes that the action is taking place. Functioning as “adjective”, “calculating” means “selfish, scheming, or shrewd”. The sentence depicts

characteristics of a person. 1.3 Syntactical factor Syntactically, sentences are made up of phrases; phrases are made up of words. Thus, there exists a kind of

syntactic relation, i.e., a hierarchical relation. Such a relation shows the inner layers of sentences. The way the words are arranged hierarchically has an important role in determining the meaning. It is also because of this that the ambiguity is produced. IC Analysis (Immediate Constituent Analysis) proposed by Leonard Bloomfield can be used to reveal the hierarchical structure of a sentence. Take the following for instance:

old men and women It means “old men and old women” if we regard old as a modifier of both men and women; or “women and

old men” if we think old is a modifier of men but not of women. The ambiguity can be captured by two different hierarchical structures.

old men and women old men and women

old men and women old man and women

1.4 Pragmatic factor In different communicational situations or specific contexts, a sentence may have more than one meaning

due to speakers’ different purposes. The meanings, then, are not determined by the lexical collocation and sentence structure, but by the given context and the intonations; i.e.

(A) There is a bull in the field.

A Brief Study of Factors Causing Ambiguity and Disambiguation

53

In one situation, the speaker may provide information to the listener, showing the existences of something. In the other, the speaker may give warning to him or her, indicating there is something dangerous in the field that he or she must take care.

(B) He is a fine friend. In a certain context, the speaker may really praise him, or rather mean “He is indeed a good and kind friend.”

So, this sentence should be read like “He is a fine friend.” On the other hand, the tone may be ironic, showing the speaker ’s dissatisfaction with “him”. Then it is better to read the sentence like “He is a fine friend.”

2. How to Make Disambiguation

In our daily life, whenever speaking or writing, we try to be concise, proper, informational with the purpose of making ourselves understand and understood. Ambiguity, however, may be invisible stumbling stone that exerts negative influence on human’s intercommunication. Therefore, disambiguation becomes the main concern of many linguists.

As is known to us, the appearance of ambiguity is tightly associated with the absence of communicational situation or specific context. Consequently, contextualization ranks the top and important position when we do disambiguation.

When running across an ambiguous sentence, we’d better put it into a specific context. It’s quite helpful for us to work out the definite meaning of a word or a sentence. Look at the following sentence:

The marine captain liked his new position. Situation A: Suppose this captain had his legs broken several days ago, and was required by the doctor to rest

in the bed, not in the chair. The sentence should be understood like this: The marine captain liked his new position--- his bed. (“Position” definitely refers to “bed”)

Situation B: Suppose this captain was promoted several days ago. Of course, the sentence must be interpreted like this: The marine captain liked his new rank. (“Position” absolutely means “duty or responsibility”)

In a specific context, ambiguity can easily disappear. At least, the possibility of ambiguity may be discounted. To figure out the exact meanings of ambiguous words or sentences demands our careful consideration in particular context.

3. Conclusion

In a word, ambiguity is a kind of very interesting linguistic phenomenon, which deserves our careful observation and research. Unintentional ambiguity causing inconvenience needs to be exposed and eliminated. Yet intentional ambiguity used tactically may bring specific but wonderful communicational effect. Most importantly, as efficient English learners, when reading a sentence, we have to do further analysis according to the context to dig out its deeper meaning. The research in this field is also quite rewarding and its contribution to the language teaching is beyond words. Deep research and proper application must promote the development of language teaching.

References: 1. Qin, Honglin & Jia, Delin. A Study of English Ambiguity. Nanjing: Jiangsu Education Press. 1991. 2. Qiu, Shude. English Ambiguity. Beijing: Commercial Press. 1998. 3. Rod, Ellis. Foreign Language Acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2000. 4. Shen, Jiaxuan. Types of Ambiguity in English Language. Modern Foreign Language. 1985(1): 26-35.

(Edited by Wendy, Nizee and Doris)