Exercise Different types of ambiguity: Difference between revisions

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{ Which two meanings does the following sentence contain? Paraphrase them. <br/> ''We need more intelligent administrators.''
'''3.''' Which two meanings does the following sentence contain? Paraphrase them. <br/> ''We need more intelligent administrators.''
|type="()"}
 
+ Done
 
|| ''We need more intelligent administrators.'' <br/>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
||Here we have a case of structural ambiguity, i.e. the ambiguity arises on the sentence level. <br/>
Check your solutions here
||There are two different ways how this sentence can be read:<br/>
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">''We need more intelligent administrators.'' <br/>
||Possibility 1: <br/>
Here we have a case of structural ambiguity, i.e. the ambiguity arises on the sentence level. <br/>
||We have enough administrators, but they are not bright enough and need to become more intelligent.<br/>
There are two different ways how this sentence can be read:<br/>
||Here, ''more'' is used as a comparative particle. So, ''more intelligent'' forms one constituent.<br/>
Possibility 1: <br/>
||Possibility 2:<br/>
We have enough administrators, but they are not bright enough and need to become more intelligent.<br/>
||We do not have enough administrators and need more administrators who are intelligent.<br/>
Here, ''more'' is used as a comparative particle. So, ''more intelligent'' forms one constituent.<br/>
||In this case, ''more'' is used as a determiner. Thus, it combines with the phrase ''intelligent administrators''.<br/>
Possibility 2:<br/>
We do not have enough administrators and need more administrators who are intelligent.<br/>
In this case, ''more'' is used as a determiner. Thus, it combines with the phrase ''intelligent administrators''.<br/></div>
</div>


   
   

Revision as of 20:30, 6 January 2014

The following material is an adapted form of material created by student participants of the project e-Learning Resources for Semantics (e-LRS).
Involved participants: Nicki, Marc M, Leo, Anna Böcher, Lorena

Different types of ambiguity

1 Phrases and sentences as a whole can have more than one meaning. How is this form of ambiguity called?

Scope Ambiguity
Lexical Ambiguity
Structural Ambiguity

2 Think of an ambiguous phrase or sentence on your own and explain its ambiguity.

Done


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