How Ambiguous Is The Structural Ambiguity

Main Author: Simatupang, Masda Surti; Universitas Kristen Indonesia
Format: Article info application/pdf eJournal
Bahasa: eng
Terbitan: Bina Nusantara University , 2007
Subjects:
Online Access: http://journal.binus.ac.id/index.php/Lingua/article/view/315
http://journal.binus.ac.id/index.php/Lingua/article/view/315/299
Daftar Isi:
  • A word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. The ambiguity, however, can be noticed if one really has a linguistic knowledge on how to analyze the phrase or sentence. Of the two kinds of ambiguity, lexical and structural, the latter is the one which is explored further in this paper. Structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence has more than one underlying structure. The phrase can be disambiguated by putting it in a sentence with some sort of formal signals which help the reader or hearer to recognize the sentence structure. Some of the signals include function words, inflections, affixes, stress, juncture, and punctuation. The rest of this paper discusses some types of structural ambiguity, how they differ, and some possible ways to resolve them.