− ambiguous word
Referential Ambiguity
1. Referential ambiguity occurs when
an indefinite referring expression may be specific or not.
− Faulty pronoun reference
2. Anaphora
− Faulty pronoun reference
3. The pronoun you is used generically
or specifically. − Faulty pronoun
reference 4.
A noun phrase with every can have distributed reference or collected
reference − Faulty pronoun
reference
Surface structure Ambiguity
1. Constructions containing the
coordinators and and or − Faulty of sentence
construction − Improper or missing
punctuation 2.
A coordinate head with one modifier − Faulty of sentence construction
3. A head with a coordinate modifier
− Improper or missing punctuation
4. A head with an inner modifier and
an outer modifier − Faulty of sentence
construction 5.
A complement and modifier or two complements.
− Faulty of sentence construction
6. Certain function words, including
not, have possible differences in scope
-
5. Ways to Disambiguate Ambiguity
Any linguists proposed different ways to disambiguate ambiguous sentence. There are paraphrasing Huford, Heasly and James; thruth
conditional Pool; adding preposition Bhaskara; moving sentence construction Schlenker; adding additional context Hovy and Tratz, and
using picture Barnard and Jahnson.
a. Paraphrasing
The first way is paraphrasing. A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence
assuming the same referents for any referring expressions involved Hurford, Heasly and Smith, 2007: 108-109. The writer gives some
example from the data above, that is: 1
I am a new student at a new school in a new town. backpack 4: 9
Sentence above is ambiguous in lexical level since the word new has duality meaning, those are: not existing before, and now for the first
time. The writer tries to make that sentence unambiguous as follows: − I am a new student at a new school that is the first school I
attended. This is also in my new town to live in. − I am a new student at a new school in the town of the nowly
inaugurated. 2
Go up to other kids and introduce yourself. backpack 4: 9 The sentence above is lexically ambiguous because the word up
has two meaning, those are: near and higher place. The writer tries to make that sentence unambiguous as follows:
− Go to the higher place that the other kids take a place and introduce your self to them.
− Go foward to other kids and introduce yourself to them. 3
You could hurt yourself in a fall, and then never ride at all.backpack 4: 38
Sentence above clearly contains homonym that is in the word fall. The word fall has two interpretations, there are: an act of
accidentally or drop to the ground or autumn. The writer tries to make that sentence unambiguous as follows:
− You could hurt yourself in an accident that could make you fall into the ground, and then never ride at all.
− You could hurt yourself in autumn, and then never ride at all. 4
Back then, students didn’t have notebooks. backpack 4: 67 That sentence clearly contains lexical ambiguity that is in the
word notebooks. The word notebooks can interpret in two ways, there are: book or kind of laptop. The writer tries to make that sentence
unambiguous as follows: − Back then, students didn’t have a small laptop.
− Back then, students didn’t have sheet of paper or known as books.
b. Truth conditional section
