Pr.M.

Hammani FLHS Marrakech

Ambiguity in Language
Language ambiguity can be a fun or serious case in affecting the audience's understanding.
So, let’s look at the two examples below:

 [ Sam went for a walk with her friend in the red shirt] 
 [ The result of the research ensures that young women and men are healthy] 

These two sentences could cause an interesting or a serious confusion as they lead us to two
different meanings: 

Example (1): 

 (Sam) is wearing the red shirt

 (Sam’s friend) is wearing the red shirt  

Example (2):

 Both the (women) and (men) are young 

 Just the(women) are young 

From these examples, we can define the term ambiguity as any word, phrase, or statement
that could have more than one possible meaning. Therefore, using that term could leave the
reader or the listener confused by the vagueness. Sometimes, people use these terms with
intent; other times, they do not even know that they used one. In writing and speech, there are
two forms of ambiguity: lexical ambiguity and syntactic ambiguity.

1. Lexical Ambiguity: (within a word)

This form of ambiguity is also called homonymy or semantic ambiguity. It occurs in the
sentence because of the poor vocabulary usage that leads to two or more possible meanings.

Example (1): 

My sister saw bat.

This example has four different meanings:

 My sister saw a bat (saw the past tense of see) (bat the bird)
 My sister saw a bat (saw the past tense of see) (bat the wooden baseball bat)
 My sister saw a bat (saw as cutting) (bat the bird)
 My sister saw a bat (saw as cutting) (bat the wooden baseball bat)

Example (2): 

The boy carries the light box. 

This example has three different meanings:

 (light) not a heavy box

 (light) a box that has an electric lamp  
 (light) a shiny box 

2. Syntactic Ambiguity: (within a sentence or sequence of words)

This form of ambiguity is also called structural or grammatical ambiguity. It occurs in the
sentence because the sentence structure leads to two or more possible meanings.

Example (1): 

I invited the person with the microphone. 

This example has two different meanings:

 I spoke (using the microphone) to invite the person 

 I invited the person who (has the microphone).

  

Example (2): The turkey is ready to eat.    

This example has two different meanings:

 I cooked the turkey, and it is ready to be eaten 

 The turkey bird itself is ready to eat some food.

Remember, language ambiguity sometimes sounds interesting; however, it could also lead to
profound misunderstanding. Just know when it is appropriate to use it, and always let others
read your piece in a case if you do not intend to use it.