CHAP TER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

In Nigeria today, it is appalling that the level of reading and writing skills are very low

despite the increasing volumes of reading materials that are readily available. Products of

Nigerian schools such as school certificate holders and graduates are found to be deficient

in their reading and writing skills as their performances in the two skills are at variant

with the other two skills of listening and speaking, Adenuga (2015). The divergence

between the expected and observed learning outcomes behaviours is attributed to the

status of English as a second language in Nigeria. A study by Otenaike (2005) revealed

that the reading rate of Nigerians is very poor. Writing is one of productive skills in

language learning. The writing activity is different from other activities. It is less

spontaneous but more permanent since it takes much time and concentrated practice. In

writing, there is a number of language aspects which involves; model texts, grammar,

spell-check, punctuation and prepositions. Aside these, there is an aspect that has to do

with semantics, which is ambiguity.

Harmer says that ‘writing has a number of conventions which separate it out from

speaking. Apart from differences in grammar and vocabulary, there are issues of letter,

word, and text formation manifested by handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and meaning

relations (255). It means that, writing offers the opportunities to increase students’

vocabulary, knowledge of grammar, and meaning relation of words for clearer deduction

of meanings in messages and expression. In trying to achieve effective flow of

information in a clearer term, the speaker must, as much as possible, avoid expressions

that are ambiguous.

 Ambiguity is an aspect of inter-lexical and sentential relation in the field of semantics.

Since words are the ingredients for any meaningful and comprehensive construction at the

level of sentences, text and discourse, there is need for a speaker to have adequate

knowledge of the meaning of words and how they relate to form sentences that are having

a straight forward meaning.

The place of reading and writing in the world today cannot be over emphasized. The

world is becoming a global village by the reason of high technological advancements.

Reading and writing remain the sure way of acquainting ourselves with global realities.

Learning a language involves becoming proficient in the four language skills of speaking,

listening, reading and writing. The effectiveness of student’s performance in language

performance centres on the mastery of the four basic language skills (reading and

writing), it is therefore expected that specific emphasis is placed on the learning of these

skills by both educators and students. Errors are inevitable part in the language learning

process, and neither the teacher nor students is free from making errors. It is useful to

have an understanding of the variety of typical errors in reading, writing, and speaking.

Largely, errors are unavoidable but they are also amenable to corrections Jiboku (2003).

One special difference to ambiguity is that it is unnoticed. The writer or speaker of an

ambiguous statement will always leave his/her speaker in the puzzle state of deciding

which of the meanings to accept and act upon. Having more than one semantic

implication in a word or a construction is detrimental to communication, most especially

between students and teachers.

It is a well known trend in the academic world that for a student to progress or attain

some level of academic promotion, such student must sit for an examination, attempt

some questions in a lucid and clear terms for him/her to fetch some marks that will give a

certain grade for consideration as to whether or not he should be promoted. Quite sure,
 the system must be obeyed. But in doing that, most students have faltered and inscribed

double-edged answers that made them fail the administered test of exam. And in Most

cases, the students do not even know that their written inscriptions are have multiple

meanings.

Asides meeting up with assessment and exams, students do interact among themselves

and with their lecturers. These interactions are often marred by lack of specification in

meaning relation of words use. They end up breaking the chain of speech act in its

locutionary and illocutionary movements. Thus, one thing will be said, and a different

thing will be performed. In trying to deal with such a situation, the purist approach to

language cannot be used. Students cannot be guided on how to make unambiguous

statements, rather, we have to take a leaf from the descriptive linguists by collecting data

from the speeches and writings of a particular speech community within the students’

constituency (academic milieu). This work is therefore, focused on the essay and

speeches of some selected 200 level students of the department of English, Nasarawa

State University, Keffi. We are to get the primary data and fish out the raw data in them

for onward analysis and solutions. This goes a long way in cautioning students on how to

avoid ambiguous statements at the course of speech and writing.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

It is an undeniable reality that English language, being an international language, poses

certain challenges and difficulties in its usage, especially by non-native learners. It is also

worth-mentioning that English language is one of the most significant languages across the

globe. It has a long history behind it and slowly/gradually, but certainly, it has attained a

privileged status in the world. Therefore, it has almost become a survival kit for an

individual to learn English as a second or foreign language, especially, in the third world

countries. Keeping in view this present scenario, it would not be an exaggeration to say
 that proficiency in English language must be acquired to keep pace with the changing

world. Learners of English language in Nigeria commit different errors while writing or

speaking the language. And these errors create a lot of problems to communication.

A good writing has to be lucid some aspects, say, grammar, punctuation, spellings,

and meaning relation of words used (semantics). In fact, ensuring meaning relation is very

important because it makes expression to be complete and comprehensible. Failure to use

words with specification will result in different meanings, as such listeners are not able to

understand the meaning correctly. This is why the lecturers and the students must pay

attention to inter-lexical relations in communication. Achieving this at the early stage of

students’ professional journey in studying English language will go a long way in

producing set of experts with competence and performance in the imperial language.

Treating the problem of constructing write-ups and making speeches with multiple

meaning at the early stage of year 2, the introductory stage to students in the department of

English, is an issue to be considered, hence the amplifying the nature of the problem at

hand and the importance attached to treating it.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The major preoccupation of this research work is to study or analyse ambiguity in the

essays of selected 200 level students of English Department of Nasarawa State University

Keffi. To achieve this, the following specific objectives are outlined:

I. To find out the kinds of ambiguous mistakes often made by 200 level students of the

Department of English in their written essays

II. To point out the meanings contain in them (the ambiguous statements).

III. To point out the correct ways of putting the ambiguous constructions made by the

students for future redress and corrections.

1.4 The Research Questions

The research questions for this study are:

I. What kinds of ambiguous mistakes are made by 200 level students of English

Department?

II. To what extent/degree can multiple meanings be derived from those ambiguous

constructions?

III. What suggestions will be given by the researcher to help in guiding the students on

how to avoid duality in meaning relation of words and sentences?

1.5 The Significance of Research

The present research is significant as it intends to investigate ambiguity that has both

analytic and predictive meanings in students’ essays. It is analytic because it discloses

the learners’ state of the language at a specific level. It is predictive because it can tell

the meanings inherent in a single construction or word. This will guide writers in

achieving lucidity in their works, and also ease the task of the readers.

1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study will only cover the selected essays written by 200 level students of the

Department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. Precisely, the study seeks to

discover the common ambiguous statements or words common with students’ intention(s)

to express themselves during essay(s) writing.

 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Preamble

This chapter centres on the review of related concepts, empirical review and

theoretical review.

2.1 Conceptual Review

Reading is one of language skills that is very important to be learnt by language

learners. It is a way of comprehending the expression of others via unspoken means of

interaction. In dealing with writing, people ought to articulate clearly what they have

in mind. Thus, a well composed piece of essay must be easy to read and comprehend.

2.1.1 The Concept of Communication

Communication is very crucial in all spheres of life. The need to co-exist among

humans is entrenched on the communicative behaviour of individuals in the society.

This is so because, no human being would wish to exist alone on the face of the earth.

Indeed, man has developed more than other creatures of God because of his/her

ability to make meaningful sounds, create meaningful symbols, signs, signals and

figures to graphitise his communicative system (Park 1994).

Communication is an act through which an individual expresses what is in his

mind. It is a complex phenomenon because it is a collection of components within

scientific paradigms such as psychology, speech pathology, and medicine (Folar

2005). It also includes the paradigm of pragmatics which encompasses methods and

principles of studying a communicative event rather than its separate components.

Communication is the process of exchanging information and ideas. It involves

encoding, transmitting, and decoding an intended message (Owens 8).

 According to Newman and Summer (2003), “communication is an exchange of

facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons”. Communication is also

defined as intercourse through words, letters, symbols or messages and as a way through

which the member of an organization shares meaning and understanding with another

(Brown 1993). “Communication is the transmission and interchange of facts, ideas,

feelings or course of action” (Louis 1999). “Communication is the sum of all the

things one person does; when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another.

It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and

understanding” (Ordway 2015). Communication is a composite information given and

received out of a learning experience. In this, certain attitudes, knowledge, and skills

change. It also serves as process through which behaviours are altered, examination of

issues by the communicators is enhanced, sensitive interacting points of views are

shared, thereby leading to a higher level of shared understanding and common

intention (Myers 2002). Myers moves further to say that, “communication refers to a

special kind of patterning: a patterning which is expressed in symbolic form” (12).

For communication to take place between or among people, two requirements

must be met: (1) a symbolic system must be shared by the people involved (we need

to speak the same language or jargon or dialects) and (2) the associations between the

symbols and their referents must be shared (Katz and Kahn 2004). “Communication is

the exchange of information and the transmission of meaning. It is the very essence of a

social system of an organization” (Davis 1994). Davis also believed that the only way

that management can be achieved in an organization is through the process of

communication. Chester (21) believes that “in the exhaustive theory of organization,

communication would occupy a central place because the structure, extensiveness and

scope of organizations are almost entirely determined by communication techniques”.

2.1.2 Punctuation

Punctuation is the use of special marks that are added to separate phrases and

sentences, to show that something is a question, and so on (Maliki 2008). Using

punctuation is very important because it can make the reader to easily understand the

meaning in a written text, even without knowing the person who wrote the text. To

write well, you must punctuate well, but to punctuate well, you must also write well

(Ellis and Barkhuizen 1992). The functions of punctuation marks are to separate

words and phrases within a sentence; according to their meanings (Maliki 2008).

Misuse of punctuation, for instance, a question mark (?) instead of a full stop (.) at the

end of a sentence may convey a different meaning (Bram 1995).

2.1.2 Essay: A Review

An essay is a short academic composition. The word “essay” is derived from a French

word “essai” or “essayer,” which means “trail” (Maliki 2008). She further asserts that

an essay is a short piece of writing, which is often from the writer’s point of view

(14).

In composition, however, an essay is a piece of non-fiction writing that talks

or discusses a specific topic (Banard 2003). George (38) says essay is a written piece

that is designed to present an idea, propose an argument, express the emotion or

initiate debate. It is a tool that is used to present writer’s ideas in a non-fictional way.

Multiple applications of this type of writing go way beyond, providing political

manifestos and art criticism as well as personal observations and reflections of the

author (George 1989). An essay can be as short as 500 words, it can also be 5000

words or more.  However, most essays fall somewhere around 1000 to 3000 words;

this word range provides the writer enough space to thoroughly develop an argument

and work to convince the reader of the author’s perspective regarding a particular
 issue (Ellis and Barkhuzain 2003).  The topics of essays are boundless: they can range

from the best form of government to the benefits of eating peppermint leaves daily.

Presently, long essay is part of every degree programme. Each subject has specific

requirements for the essays to be written. Some subjects need longer essays, while

others need shorter ones, such as a five-paragraph essay. In composition, the start is

made from a five-paragraph essay. Based on the requirements, there are seventeen

types of essays (Ellis and Barkhuzain 2003). Essays can consist of a number of

elements, including literary criticism, political manifestos, arguments, observations of

daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. This project will cover

argumentative/persuasive, research, compare/contrast, descriptive, evaluation,

narrative, exposition, classification, and analysis essays.

a. Narrative Essay

A narrative essay is a narration, like, a short story. It is, however, different from a

short story in that it is written in an essay format. Narrative essays are typically about

detailed experiences that the writer has faced in life. It is a story that is meaningful to

the author, which can be either real or imaginary. It describes how a certain event

changed a major part of the writer’s life and how he or she reacted to the event. The

writer uses details that are significant and merges them to build up a storyline that is

easy for the reader to follow. Features of a narrative essay include:

• An introduction that clearly indicates the topic (an event or recurring activity, a

personal experience, or an observation)

• Personal stories and a great amount of detail

• Generally in first person

• Descriptive terms to help the reader visualize the story/events

 • The writing should be personalized, reflecting the unique writing style and

personality of the writer (Ellis and Barkhuizen 2003).

b. Descriptive Essay

As it sounds, this type of essay gives a description about a particular topic, or

describes the traits and characteristics of something or a person in detail. It allows

artistic freedom, and creates images in the minds of readers through the use of the five

senses. A descriptive essay describes something to make readers feel, smell, see, taste,

or hear what is described. An essay rarely consists of just descriptions. It is usually

within another type of essay. Description conveys the qualities of a subject – person,

place, or object – by focusing on concrete sensory details of sight, sound, touch, taste,

and smell (Ferris 1997). Features of a descriptive essay include:

• A specific subject

• Specific, descriptive details

• A clear pattern of organization

• Adjectives and adverbs that help to describe the subject

c. Expository Essay

An expository essay exposes things in detail to make readers understand without any

complications.  In an expository essay, the writer gives an explanation of an

idea, theme, or issue to the audience by giving his personal opinions. This essay is

presented through examples, definitions, comparisons, and contrast. The purpose of

an expository essay is to present, completely and fairly, the views of others. It can

also report about an event or a situation. Expository writing presents a subject in

detail apart from criticism, argument, or development (Ellis and Barkhuizen 2003).

Features of an expository essay include:

 • A clear, concise and well-defined thesis statement (the last sentence of the

introductory paragraph containing the main idea of an essay)

• Clear and logical transitions between paragraphs

• Body paragraphs with evidential support

• Evidence that is presented with creativity

• A conclusion that restates the thesis and highlights the evidence presented to support

it

d. Persuasive/Argumentative Essay

In this type of essay, the writer tries to convince his readers to adopt his position

or point of view on an issue, after he provides them solid reasoning in this connection.

It requires a lot of research to claim and defend an idea. It is also called

an argumentative essay (Ellis and Barkhuizen 2003).

A persuasive essay is meant to convince the target audience to do something or not do

something. An argumentative essay is meant to present arguments in the favour of

something. It has an additional fourth body paragraph that is meant to present

opposite arguments.

The function of an argumentative essay is to prove that the author’s opinions about a

particular subject are correct or more truthful than other opinions on the subject (Ellis

and Barkhuizen 2003). Features of an argumentative or persuasive essay include:

• A well-defined, controversial issue

• A counter argument

• A clear position taken by the writer

• A persuasive argument as to why the writer’s stance is correct

• Support the thesis using facts, data, quotes, rhetorical questions

• A reasonable, confident tone/Lack of bias

e. Analytical Essay

An analytical essay analyses something, such as in literature. An analytical essay

analyses a piece of literature from different angles. An analytical essay is a paper that

presents a critical assessment of a text, concept, behaviour, or other entity in a

thorough and academic way. As its name suggests, an analysis essay intends to

analyse using a variety of critical thinking skills and approaches (Ellis and Barkhuizen

2003). Features of an analytical essay include:

• A strong thesis that states the author’s position on the text you are analysing

• Facts and details to support the author’s point of view

• A critical evaluation of the structure and information of the text

• A conclusion that restates the thesis in a different way than before and briefly

restates the supporting details

f. Comparison and Contrast Essay

A comparison and contrast essay makes either a comparison, a contrast, or both

between two different or similar things. Compare-contrast essays are informative

because they discuss a subject in one of two ways. Either it identifies likenesses

between two ideas or things that are commonly thought to be different, or it identifies

differences between items that are commonly thought to be similar (Ellis and

Barkhuizen 2003).

g. Evaluation Essay

In our everyday lives, we are constantly evaluating, making judgments and forming

opinions. Evaluative essays seek to prompt readers to examine their own values and

to perhaps accept the view of the writer. This type of essay can be used in book and

movie reviews, or it can be used to describe a work process, such as a recipe. Features

of an evaluation include:
 • An adequately described subject

• An assertion or definitive judgment

• An argument based on reasonable criteria

• A clear pattern of organization

2.1.4 The Concept of Ambiguity

To set out its definition as well as the definitions of generality and indeterminacy, from

which ambiguity is to be distinguished, one must rely on the basic concepts of

traditional semantics: meaning, denotation, and connotation (Tuggy 2003). The

denotation of an expression is the set of objects to which it truly applies; and the

connotation of an expression is the property, or properties, possession of which by an

object licenses the application of an expression to it Leech (10-13). In traditional

semantics, these concepts are related as follows: the meaning of an expression fixes its

connotation, and its connotation, in turn, fixes its denotation. Equipped with these

concepts, one can provide the obvious and traditional definition of ambiguity.

Kempson (19) defines ambiguity “as the state of having two possible

interpretations from an expression”. Thus, an expression in general terms is ambiguous

if it has more than one meaning. When a word, say, ‘bank’ has multiple meanings, we

have lexical ambiguity, while a sentence can be ambiguous even if none of its words is

ambiguous, because sometimes the ambiguity is considered syntactic as a result of an

alternative meaning that correspond to an alternative syntactic configuration (Todd

2006). Ndimele (99) defines ambiguity “as a grammatical phenomenon in which an

expression can be given more than one interpretation.” He likens it to polysemy in the

sense that one stretch of utterance is given more than one meaning. Ambiguity,

according to Mayfield (22), refers to “the openness of a word or claim to more than one

interpretation; the quality of possessing more than one meaning.” According to Palmer
 (81), ambiguity could be defined as “the uncertainty of meaning, usually caused by

word or phrases that convey more than one meaning”. When trying to elaborate,

Kempson (17) notes that ambiguity is the state of having two possible interpretations,

while vagueness allows for more than interpretations. He further cited an example as

thus: “Peter takes over as head of service” (Vanguard 2017). He said, here we realize

the linguistic term ‘head’ is the same identical lexeme but is polysemous in nature,

thereby changing the denotative meaning that can easily be deduced to a connotative

one (18). Thus, the difference between ambiguity and vagueness is a matter of whether

two or more meanings associated with a given phonological form are distinct

(ambiguous), or united as non-distinguished sub-cases of a single, more general

meaning (vague).

2.1.4 Causes of Ambiguity

Some linguists and communication experts in their contribution to the study of ambiguity

have identified causes of ambiguity. Cann (14) states that ‘ambiguity can arise through (1)

the ascription of multiple meanings to single words’. For instance "the mean's punch was

impressive". Ambiguity occurs because the word "punch" may be interpreted as a drink or as

an action. (2) Lexemes whose word forms have this property are called homonyms and can

be subdivided into homophones where the forms of the lexemes sound the same but may be

written differently. For example "draft and draught" which can be represented phonemically

as /dra:ft/ and homographs for instance "minute" which are written the same way but

pronounced differently. (3) Ambiguity can also arise through the assignment of different

syntactic structures to a sentence. For example: ‘The strike was called by radical lecturers and

students’. In this sentence, the ambiguity results from the possibility of assigning two or more

syntactic structures to a single grammatical string of words. It becomes necessary to know

whether the adjective "radical" modifies the nominal phrase "lecturers and students", in
which case both the student who called the strike are said to be radical but the political

attitude of the students who did so is not specified. The major issue here is, the scope of the

adjective, ‘radical’. Scope is a primary source of ambiguity which involves not only

adjectives but also conjunctions, like ‘and’, ‘or’ and quantifiers like ‘every’, ‘all’ and ‘some’.

Apart from lexical ambiguity, there is structural ambiguity. This has its source in the syntax

of a language. There are other ambiguities that involve negation (not), quantification (every,

some) and other elements like ‘sense’, which do not vary their syntactic position according to

the reading of the sentence. Kaiz (158-159) states that; Semantic ambiguity, as distinct from

syntactic ambiguity and phonological ambiguity, has its source in the homonym of words.

Syntactic ambiguity occurs when a sentence has more than one underlying structure.

Phonological ambiguity occurs when surface structures of different sentences are given the

same phonological interpretation. Semantic ambiguity, on the other hand, occurs when an

underlying structure contains an ambiguous word or words that contribute to or their multiple

senses to the meaning of the whole sentence to be used to make more than one statement,

request, query etc. Thomas (97) emphasizes that; A sentence can be ambiguous through bad

arrangement of words and clauses, that is a violation of the rule of proximity. For example;

“this lift must only be used by the staff”. The vague use of pronouns-this occurs particularly

in reported speech. For example; ‘he told his younger brother that he could not sleep because

he was too busy at night’. Ambiguity arises because we do not know if "he" refers to "the

speaker" or to his "younger brother". The omission of necessary words and "insertion" of

articles to certain sentences. For example: ‘The qualification for a teacher and lecturer are not

the same’. The article "a" should be inserted before "lecturer" to show that two distinct

persons are referred to. Akwanya (78) agreeing with others, states that some lexical items

play a pivotal role in the interpretation of a sentence and that the sentence may be subject to

more interpretation if the item is not sufficiently specified in the context. For instance the
item "run" in the following sentence plays such a central role. ‘Obiageli is running the race’.

"Run" here may be interpreted to mean (1) contending in a race (2) organizing a race. Fowler

(14), apart from agreeing that the use of a word with two meanings in a context makes for

absurdity or uncertainty, also lists other common causes of ambiguity as: the use of pronouns

in such a way that the reader cannot be sure of their antecedents. For example:

1. In the December previous to his raid on the Tower he was chief of a gang who

overpowering his attendants seized Mayor of Abuja in Yakubu Street when returning from a

dinner party’. (His refers not to the preceding he, but to the Mayor)

2. If the baby does not feed on feed on fresh milk, boil it’.

3. John told Derek that he has passed the examinations’.

In the last sentence does "he" in the sentence mean John or Derek, does "it" in sentence

(2) refer to the milk or the baby. It cannot be assumed that readers will always associate a

pronoun with the last noun but one can think of the baby as the antecedent of it. Another

cause of ambiguity is uncertainty ‘whether’ ‘shall’ or ‘will’, ‘should’ or ‘would’ is used as a

simple auxiliary or as implying volition or obligation. Example: ‘It is of interest to note that

even as a tiro in politics’, he should have taken his own line, failure to make clear the field of

operation of a word or phrase for example; He needs more suitable compassions, or a

participle – ‘His dog might sometimes come to resemble the frightened and exhausted rabbit

who in the end walks towards the stoat seeking to devour him or a relative’. Other

subordinate clause, for example: ‘I accused him of having violated the principles of

concentration of force which had resulted in her present failures’ can cause ambiguity. For

example, ‘the hat was not sent because of information received’. The word "because"

showing a negative clause is often a cause of ambiguity. Does "because" in the subordinate

disclaim the reason why a thing was done or does it give a reason why a thing was not done?
Furthermore, the placing of the word "even" wrongly can cause ambiguity. It will be seen in

position of adverbs that their placing is a matter partly of idiom and partly of sense. "Even" is

one of those words whose placing is important to the sense. Look at the following examples:

1. Even I did not see him on Monday.

This implies that I was more likely to see him than anyone else was.

2. I did not even see him on Monday.

This implies that I had expected not only to see him but also to speak to him.

3. I did not see him even on Monday.

This also implies that he was the person expected to see.

4. I did not see him even on Monday.

This implies that ‘Monday was the day on which I expected to see him. The indiscriminate

placing of adverbs can cause ambiguity. There is an important difference between these two

sentences:

1. He did not win luckily.

2. He did not win, luckily.

Doubt avoided by re-arranging the order of the second sentences as luckily, he did not

win. All adverbs need not be placed where there can be doubt what word they are modifying

but some adverbs like ‘hardly’, ‘scarcely’, ‘almost’, ‘even’, and ‘only’, need special care.

In some sentences ambiguity occurs because of faulty punctuation. It may be because

a comma has been omitted or wrongly introduced. Example, ‘I am speaking to you Ugo’.

There should be a comma after you so the sentence should be I am speaking to you, Ugo.

Consider the following: She likes coffee and rolls in bed. If comma is introduced after coffee
the sentence will have quite a different meaning. Omission of vital punctuations is a major

factor responsible for ambiguity in human communication. This is because proper use of

punctuation marks in most cases usually aids the communication or comprehension of

writer's intended meaning. Hence, the omission of vital punctuations may not clarify intended

meaning and thereby subject communicator's expressions or ideas to double or multiple

semantic interpretation. Example: If you need a good car at the end of the month, bring your

money. This sentence is capable of dual or double semantic interpretation because it is not

properly punctuated to indicate the intended meaning by putting a comma at the appropriate

place.

Use of double or multiple referent pronouns is also another factor that causes

ambiguity. This arises when a communicator uses a pronoun that can go with two or more

nouns mentioned in a given expression i.e. where the pronoun has double or multiple nominal

referents. Cook and Ayodele also identified the role of this key factor in semantic multiplicity

Multiple Class Membership of some Verbs According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and

Svartik (11) say that this is possible because some verbs can belong in some ways to different

classes of verbs and thereby function grammatically in different ways. The problem in this

kind of situation is that such multiple class membership can subject the various functional

possibilities of the verbs to different semantic interpretations. Example: ‘She found him a

reliable partner’. The verb found can be mono transitively used. When used mono-transitively

we will have the SVOC sentence structure with the meaning she discovered or realized that

he was a reliable partner. When used ditransitively we will have |the SVOO sentence

structure with the sentence meaning - she got a reliable partner for him.
2.1.5 Kinds of Ambiguity

Lexical Ambiguity

It has been established that something is ambiguous when it can be understood in two

or more possible senses or ways. If the ambiguity is in a single word, it is referred to as

lexical ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity arises when context is insufficient to determine the

sense of a single word that has more than one meaning. For example the word "court" has

several meaning. It can be understood to mean an open level area marked with lines upon

which tennis-or handball etc is played. It can mean the building, hall or room in which cases

are heard. It can also mean the regular session of a judicial assembly or a man who pays

attention to a lady he wants to marry etc (Clare 1990). The word "good" for example can

mean "useful" or "functional" in ‘she is a good student’. It may mean "moral" – ‘He is a good

person’. It can also mean "pleasing" – ‘This is good soup’. So a sentence like - "I have a good

daughter" is not clear about which sense is intended. Clare (11) opines thus: Lexical

ambiguity can be found everywhere; in fact, almost every word has more than one meaning.

Take the word "ambiguity" itself. It can mean an indecision as to what you mean, an intention

to mean several things, a probability that one or other or both of two things has been meant

and the fact that a statement has several meanings.

Fromkin (122) states that: Lexical ambiguity arises when at least one word in a phrase

has more than one meaning. For instance "This will make you smart."It is ambiguous because

of the two meanings of the word smart "clever or burning sensation".

Lexical words are far more useful to the writer than grammatical words such as

determiners. This occasionally leads to lexical ambiguity as many lexical words depend on

grammatical words to establish which word class they belong to. The lexical ambiguity is a
type of ambiguity which is realized when a construction has more than one meaning due to

the presence of a particular word in that construction.

Structural Ambiguity

Structural ambiguity, on the other hand, is a type of ambiguity which is realized when a

particular word or phrase can modify more than one constituent or can be involved in more

than one relational association (Lee 2003). Based on the above descriptions, we are made to

understand that an expression might just be limited to two separate expressions before it is

termed as being ambiguous. It is said to be the multiple meanings associated with an

expression structured in a sentence, thus, making two possible meanings to emerge.

Structural ambiguity therefore occurs when a sentence has more than one meaning based on

the arrangement of the structures (Tuggy 1987).

Syntactic Ambiguity

The meaning of a sentence is derived in the process of composition and is thereby determined

by its lexical components and its syntactic structure. If a sentence contains an ambiguous

lexeme the process of composition will yield as many meanings of the sentence as the

ambiguous item has. If the sentence contains more than one ambiguous lexical item, the

meanings will multiply (Lobner 2001).

2.1.4 Error: A Review

James (19), as quoted by Maliki (20), differentiates between errors and mistakes. He defines

errors as a systematic mistakes due to lack of language competence, while mistakes refer to

performance errors because of a random guess or slip. While errors cannot be self-corrected,

mistakes can be self-corrected if the deviation is pointed out to the speaker (20).

Meanwhile, Edge (3) in Douglas Brown’s book (70), offers a simpler definition that is

specially important for classroom teachers to keep in mind. He states that a slip or mistake is
what a learner can self-correct. Furthermore, Corder (6) defines mistakes as a random

performance caused by fatigue, excitement, etc; therefore, it can readily be self-corrected. He

further says that errors are systematic deviations made by learners who have not yet mastered

the rules of the target language (6). Norrish (19) says“…error is a systematic deviation, when

a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong.” Cunningworth (87)

remarks: Errors are systematic deviations from the norms of the language being learned.”

According to Brown (6), “A mistake refers to a performance error that is either random

guess or a ‘slip’, in that it is the failure to utilize a known system correctly. And an error, is a

noticeable deviation from adult grammar of a native speaker, it reflects the competence of the

learner”. From the statement above, it can be seen, that error is the result of the use of

language as a partial knowledge and competence that is achieved in language learning

process. We cannot avoid making error in learning foreign language and the error is more

crucial than the mistake. It can show us the lack of the knowledge and whereas mistake can

be corrected by ourselves.

To summarize, mistakes are failure by language users because of slip of the tongue, or

spelling. The learner easily corrects this failure since they conceptually understand the

language system. On the other hand, errors are mistakes that the students make due to lack of

competence. They are not able to do self-correction because they do not have the language

competence to handle such. Learning a language is fundamentally a process that involves

making of mistakes or errors. The mistakes can be at the levels of vocabulary, grammatical,

use of punctuation, and sound patterns.

Based on the explanation above, it seems that error is caused by the lack of knowledge,

it reveals the learners’ incompetence, while mistakes happen because temporary lapses of

memory or slips of the tongue, and it can be self-corrected. Understanding this concept has

equip us with the knowledge about one of the major causes of ambiguous construction.
2.2 Empirical Review

Kure carried out a research on “An Investigation into the State of Words Meanings among

SS3 Students” in Jigawa State. The researcher used essay questions and oral interview with

teachers and students that were randomly selected from the population sample. In terms of

population and sample size, the researcher used a government secondary school with a total

number of two hundred and forty (240) and a sample size of one hundred and four (104).

The result of the research showed that there was more incorrect usage of words due

wrong contextual application. The finding also revealed that majority of the students could

not figure out the dual meanings in their constructions. The findings also showed the

interference of the mother tongue on the students’ essays which majority affected the

students’ style of writing and meaning derivation. Kure’s research is similar to the current

research, for the two studies are both in relation to words meaning.

Ogba Thank-God did a research on “Causes and Various Forms of Ambiguity in the

Study of English Language: A Case Study of the Higher National Diploma (HNDII) Students

of School of Technology, Ebonyi”, he used essays, dictation, exam scripts, and questionnaire

for data collection. The essay writing and dictation tasks were used to test the students’ skills

in the correct use of word and sentences for effective communication. Ogba’s research is

similar to this research because the two researches are on ambiguity in English Language.

Abbas in 2008 carried out a research on “Impact of Mixed Sentences on the Quality

of Students’ Writing in Aminu Kano College of Islamic and Legal Studies”. The sample size

was two hundred and one, which were selected randomly by choosing the students whose

admission number ended with an odd number. The researcher used an essay assignment

which was given to the students on the topic of their choice. Besides, it would be said that

Abbas’ research is similar to this research because the two topics have something to do

meaning derivation in English language. Abbas used essay writing on the topic of the
students’ choice to be written at home while we intend to use students’ essay from exams,

written under the supervision of the lecturers, to find out how good they are in terms of the

use of English in written. The result of the researcher showed that one of the problems which

distorted clarity, form and cohesion in the students essay was a problem of error and poor

mastery of the language in question.

2.3 Theoretical Framework

Kombo (57) defines theoretical framework as “a collection of interrelated ideas based on the

theories…it is a general set of assumption about the nature of phenomena. To understand

theoretical frame works, an analysis of theories has to be made”. So based on the above

mentioned assertion, the researcher uses the following models in carrying out this exercise:

Content and Form

Aristotle in his technical treatise (Poetics) approved of the organism of ‘form’ and ‘content’.

Wellek (55) writes that the inseparability and reciprocity of ‘form’ and ‘content’ is of course

as old as Aristole. All modern theories draw more or less on Aristotle and Plato, especially

the former. Modern critics approve of organism of ‘form’ and ‘content’. The concept of

‘form’ and ‘content’ can be analyzed under four heads chiefly- formalism, genre criticism,

Marxist criticism, and psychoanalytic criticism. In early 19th century, Coleridge was much

influenced by German philosophers, especially A.W. Schlegel, Johann Wolfgang von

Goethe, and Immanuel Kant. Kant once wrote: ‘Form’ without ‘content’ is empty; ‘content’

without ‘form’ is blind. In principle, both ‘form’ and ‘content’ lose when separated from each

other; the value of correlation, as a practical device, consists largely in overcoming or

counteracting their divorce (67). Coleridge believed in the wholeness of art and made

distinction between ‘organic’ and ‘mechanic’ form. He arrives at this breakthrough while

defending Shakespeare from ‘neoclassical’ critics who claim that Shakespeare’s plays are

loose and utterly lack in ‘form’ (55).

Everything has at least two parts: content and form. The question that is at the bottom of

arguments about theories is often the problem of determining which of the two dominates in

the way something is constructed, understood, and used (Albert 1998). When writing was

thought of as merely a note-taking system for oral delivery, there was little argument about

what was dominant, the soon to be spoken words or the images in the document. The content

and its delivery were of great importance. But times have changed and the written document

has matured and has a life of its own. Yet the argument about which of the two features is

dominant in relation to communication has not gone away. Is it content or form? The

alternatives still seem to be sound or sight, prosody or grammar. But there could be a third

way of perceiving what is important to display in the context of a sentence.

What goes on in speech is described in a number of ways: prosody, intonation,

suprasegmentals, and more. But all of these terms relate to the way the voice configures the

sounds in speech (Albert 1998). The proponents of grammar argue for the grammatical

organization of the words in a written statement as the basis for meaning. It is how the parts

and pieces of a sentence are put together on a page that should be considered the basis for

meaning derivation. It is really the form of the medium that is important and how the

language is configured. In every translation, both content and form undergo significant

change. So we need to look at how writing presents language and makes it available to a

reader. The main factors to consider are words, sentences, and punctuations (Albert 1998).
 CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

III.1 Population of the Study

The targeted population of this study are 200 level students of the department of

English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. The total number of the population is three

hundred (300) out of which thirty (30) were taken as my sample size.

III.2 Sampling Technique

A randomize technique of sampling was adopted to take a sizeable number of ten (10)

from each group of hundred. This technique enabled us not to be personal or bias in our

assessment and conclusion.

III.3 Methods of Data Collection

For the success of this work, a random selection is made among the students of the

department of English, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, where their essays are

confidentially studied and data were collected from. In trying to make this work standard

and effective, we use exam scripts of the target population so as to avail us the

opportunity to interface with real facts.

3.4 Sources of Data

The data for this study consists of ambiguous statements made at the course of writing by

100 level students of English Department, NSUK. We fetched out these data for primary

consumption, while secondary information were got from printed materials; textbooks,

journals, newspaper, seminar papers, and online documents with genuine authorship.

3.3 Method of Data Analysis

The method of data analysis adopted by the researcher is that which analyses the

ambiguous statements identified, using semantic tool and conversational implicature,

inference, and context. In doing this, the researcher gives possible conversational
meanings of word, phrases and sentences in order to project the difficulties attached to

English language learning and how second language conflict can be resolved.
 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.0 Preamble

This chapter contains the data collected and their analysis for effective comprehension. From

the investigation conducted, it is obvious that both lexical and structural cases of ambiguity

are found in the essays of our sampled population. Thus, the presentation of data got shall

commence with the lexical cases of ambiguity before the structural ones.

4.1 Data Presentation

Table 1:

Lexical Cases of Ambiguity

S/N Words Number of Times Found Kind of Ambiguity

1. Move 3 Homonym

2. Chair 6 Homonym

3. Bread 1 Homograph

4. Mouth 1 Homonym

5. Bow 3 Homograph

6. Bear 5 Homonym

7. Aunt 7 Homograph

Table 2: Structural Ambiguity

S/N Sentences/structure

8. Good day my teacher and my mentor.

9. As you come to chair this debate, may you go home

safely.

10. I know my fellow debaters will call me the winner

 before we start.

11. My friend is chocolate skin and sweet.

12. He killed the woman with a knife.

13. Many students’ are gay.

14. Good day Mr. Chairman and time keeper.

15. The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive soon

4.2 Data Analysis

Lexicon may have homophonous or homographic entries that differ substantially in

meaning. Naturally, the polysemy (multiple meaning) may end up with comprehension

problems, particularly when the speaker is not well-informed about the background of the

conversation or does not have shared knowledge on the issue. Residual difficulties with

lexical ambiguity largely stem from the extensive lexical ambiguity of languages (Laporte

21) because languages naturally are composed of words with multiple meanings.

Accordingly, frequent English words are either homophonous or homographic and this makes

lexical ambiguity in English ubiquitous. From the data in table 1 above, the researcher is able

to point out some ambiguous constructions in the students essay resulting from the wrong use

of lexical items. The use of “move” by three different students in three different sentences

gave us two different meanings. The first student wrote as thus; we planned to move to Abuja

with my parents, before my aunt adopted me. The second student wrote, “the move by Dayo

to stop her from dying, saved the situation. The other student wrote that, “I will like to move

the motion that says, politics is a dirty game.” By implication, the “move” in the second

speaker’s construction is that of a motion from one point to another. While that of the second

and third speaker entails an effort to make something work or happen, which might be
through speech or little action with no specification on direction. This is a case of homonymy

where a word is having more than just a meaning.

In another instance, we have the case of homograph where a word share the same

spelling but different entries in the dictionary. The word “bow” as used by a student from the

sampled population has two distinct meanings. In the first place, we found out that he wrote,

“I take my bow” to mean he has come to the end of the argumentative essay he is writing. At

the same time, the word “bow” can also stands for a curvy stick with elastic rope that is use

for shooting arrow.

The polysemous word “chair” is use to mean two different things by 6 different

students. The first meaning implies an object that is use for sitting; he sits on the only chair in

the room. While the other meaning is that of a presiding member of a meeting or an occasion;

Mr. Chairman, I hope you chair this debate by supporting my argument. These sentences may

pose problems due to the lexical ambiguity in the word “chair”. Therefore, it is not an easy

detection for the listener to decide on which one is referred to in the sentence. Different from

homophonous words which may cause confusion in speaking; homographic words are a

source of potential misunderstanding for readers. These kinds of lexical ambiguities in

classrooms are experienced frequently by students who either do not know all dictionary

entries of the word or simply are not aware of the ambiguity or misconceptions that it may

pose. Generally, two linguistic items are responsible for lexical ambiguity: Homonymy and

Polysemy which were proposed for a clear distinction by Lyons (17). Both lexical items are

words with multiple meanings; however, while homonymy is called for the words with two

or more unrelated meanings, polysemic words carry the continuity of meaning within a

semantic field; therefore, they have several related meanings. The word “bear” in the 6 th

examples is a homonym because both have unrelated meaning: bear refers to an action of

carrying while it also stands for animal. On the other hand, mouth in the fourth example is the
body organ and it is the upper side of an object. An important reminder here regarding

polysemic words is that they are much more complex to detect when compared to homonym

words because they can be completely in distinct lexical formats such as metonymy,

metaphor, simile, and so on.

Although words with multiple meanings are of huge benefit in terms of language and

communicative richness for speakers, they may pose a problem only for students but also for

linguists who are overcome by many theoretical terms with similar descriptions. Therefore,

students need particular attention on lexical ambiguities to avoid possible confusion

in their writing.

Analysis on Structural Ambiguity

Syntactic ambiguity, also called structural ambiguity or grammatical ambiguity,

occurs when a reader can draw different meanings from an embedded phrase or clause inside

a sentence in an advanced discussion, we can further divide structural ambiguity in two

levels; surface structure ambiguity and deep structure ambiguity (the terms were coined by

Chomsky 14). Accordingly, surface structure can be equated with a linear arrangement of

sounds, words, clauses, and phrases whereas deep structure deals with the notion of

underlying meaning such as thoughts, feelings, ideas, and concepts, which is a cognitive issue

and is investigated by psycholinguists.

From the data in table 2, the construction, “Good day my teacher and my mentor” is

ambiguous due to lack of specification on who the mentor and the teacher is/are. Thus, the

teacher and the mentor may be one and the same person, or they may be two different

persons. The tenth example that says, “I know my co-debaters will call me the winner even

before we start” is having dual meaning because, it may his co-debaters will call him a

winner, or they will call a different person the winner. This is almost similar to what is

obtained in (11) above. “He killed a woman with knife’ may mean the speaker refers to
someone who killed a woman who his holding a knife, or he killed a woman using knife. In

(13) above, “the students are gay” is a construction that may mean the students are happy or

they are homosexual.

Using the data in (15), the mother of the boy and the girl will arrive soon”, we will see

that this sentence is ambiguous because one can derive more than one meaning from it is

either about one person (the mother) or about two people (the mother in addition to the girl).

The ambiguity is not in the words mother, boy or girl as in a sentence like "I got a mouse

today". There is an ambiguity in the word "mouse" because mouse may mean "small rodent

or a pointing device that is used to move the cursor on a computer monitor screen". In the

above sentence the ambiguity occurs because of the linear order of the words thus amounting

to structural ambiguity. The sentence can be grouped in two different ways: The mother (of

the boy and the girl) will arrive soon. The (mother of the boy) and the girl will arrive soon.

When "of the boy and the girl" are grouped together as in sentence 1, the sentence is

interpreted to mean that only the mother will arrive. When "of the boy" is instead grouped

with the mother as in sentence 2, the sentence is interpreted to mean that both the mother of

the boy and the girl will arrive. So depending on how the words are structured, one

interpretation rather than the other is possible.

The above analyses are surface structure and show that surface structural ambiguity

can be due to scope, movement, or binding inside the sentence, or selecting phrases that are

inserted in a connotative context rather than denotative context. Therefore, change of word

order may help resolution of SAs.

 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUTION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Summary

One has to be clear in language production because the main motive behind producing

language is to transmit the knowledge or intended message to another in a way that will not

disrupt the meaning. To achieve this, students need to be aware of possible misconceptions

that ambiguities may cause. In line with that, researchers aiming to increase student

awareness regarding Lexical Ambiguity and Structural Ambiguity. Different from the

existing studies in other literatures, the present study does not make a distinction between

mono- or bilingual students and has tried to evaluate LA and SA examples in their writing.

Thus, the study collected data from 30 students in one exam. The department’s consent was

sought and students granted their consent for their exam papers to be used as data for the

present study. The writer listed and explained the causes as (1) Omission of vital

punctuations (ii) use of double or multiple referent pronouns (iii) multiple class membership

of some verbs. He also explained and discoursed only three types of ambiguity such as:- (1)

Lexical Ambiguity (2) Structural ambiguity (3) Syntactic ambiguity. We have generated data

that are both lexical and structurally ambiguous from the students’ essays. These data helped

in the analyses in chapter four that enables us to see for ourselves the kinds of ambiguity

identified and enabled us to point out the possible meanings embedded. Furthermore, the fifth

chapter contains the summary of this work and the conclusion reached by the researcher.

5.2 Conclusion

In communication, there must be the source of the message, the sender, the message, the

channel through which the massage would be transmitted and then the receiver.

Communication can be viewed as “what the sender communicates (the information put into
the signal, by the sender’s selection among possible alternatives) and the information derived

(which may be thought of as the receiver’s selection from the same set of alternatives)

assumed to be identical. In practice, this brings about frequent instances of

misunderstanding” (Lyon 1993). However, the ability to detect the causes and forms of

ambiguity is crucial in the communicative process and successful communication can depend

on both writers “and readers recognizing the same meaning for a potentially ambiguous word.

So, this work carefully explored the causes and various forms of ambiguity in the essays of

some selected 200 level students of the Department of English, Nasarawa State University,

Keffi. At the end of it all, the researcher came to the conclusion that ambiguity is a language

phenomenon that is often present and unavoidable to every second language learner. And it

takes deliberate efforts as done in this work to point them out to the language learners in

order to proffer solution to it by language teachers and individuals with near-native ability.

5.3 Recommendations

From the foregoing, we recommend that:

1. Language teachers should take conscious efforts in analyzing both lexical and

structural mistakes of students that likely result to ambiguity in the class with them.

2. There should be a sincere drive in pointing out the causes of ambiguity to students,

just as it is in the study of grammar.

3. More investigation should be conducted on this topic by advanced students who have

the zeal of becoming teachers of language.

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