Ambiguity in Language
Dale D. Johnson, Bonnie Jean Johnson · 2018
The ambiguous headlines are examples of how words that have more than one definition, such as suit and dense, can cause confusion in written or spoken messages. The most reasonable way for a teacher to address multiple-meaning words is to remind students, as they learn words, that most words in our language have more than one meaning. There are two principal types of ambiguity–lexical and grammatical. Lexical ambiguity refers to the multiple meanings of words. Grammatical ambiguity can be seen in a sentence such as Visiting relatives can be fun, which can mean either that it is enjoyable when relatives come to visit or that it is fun to visit relatives. The same sort of ambiguity can be found in Jenny likes fine automobiles and motorcycles . This sentence could mean that Jenny likes only superb automobiles and superb motorcycles or that Jenny likes fine automobiles and any kind of motorcycle.